Global Bond Sales Binge Hits Record $5.95 Trillion This Year

(Bloomberg) — Global bond sales have soared to a record this year as borrowers take advantage of easy market conditions to fund everything from the boom in artificial intelligence projects to a revival in acquisitions.

Issuance has been on a tear for much of 2025 and has set a new annual record of $5.95 trillion, topping the previous high in 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And there’s still more than a month of the year to go, with Wall Street bracing for the busiest November in over a decade.

Sales have been dominated by financial institutions and increased issuance from governments to fund burgeoning budget deficits. A recent wave of jumbo-sized offerings from the likes of Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. also makes the communications sector stand out with two-thirds more debt than last year.

The momentum comes as a gauge of global credit risk hovers near the lowest level since 2007, though the deluge is starting to widen corporate spreads. Still, demand is more than matching the debt being sold, with total investor returns for the year sitting at more than 7% — the best in five years.

“We are at a period of all-time highs on demand for credit, flexibility and liability management,” said Sabrina Fox of Fox Legal Training and a leveraged finance expert. “All are playing out at the same time. The market is priced to perfection.”

In the US, Meta just amassed $125 billion of peak orders — a record for a corporate offering — for its $30 billion deal on Oct. 30. That was the biggest high-grade US sale since 2023, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Spending on AI also drove Alphabet’s huge multi-currency debt on Nov. 3 and a dual-currency offering from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. in October.

“It’s entirely reasonable to assume that you’ll see a large portion of the capex come in the form of debt,” John Sales, head of investment-grade syndicate in the Americas at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said in an interview. He pointed to the pristine balance sheets of these tech giants and hence their capacity for leverage at a time when the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates and spreads are low.

Demand is outpacing net supply, or issuance minus any existing bonds either maturing or being bought back. In the US market, for example, investors had about $74 billion more cash to reinvest than bonds sold by companies, BNP Paribas SA estimated in September.

November Flurry

That’s despite US high-grade sales hitting a record in both September and October. November has already started with a bang, though the issuance window is expected to narrow heading into December holidays.

“If you can keep enough money to get through the next two weeks, you’re probably going to be well served because then I think the supply’s gonna dry up,” said Matt Brill, head of North America investment-grade credit at Invesco Ltd.

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US borrowers are also supercharging sales in Europe. This week alone, Alphabet, Colgate-Palmolive Co., Booking Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley have all raised debt in the region’s common currency, while Verizon Communications Inc. priced its first sterling deal since 2020, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The rush is still continuing into Thursday, with Orange SA, CaixaBank SA and Raiffeisen Bank International AG among 11 borrowers so far expected to price deals in Europe. Orange is offering a five-part sale of euro notes in its biggest debt deal since 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Crisis-Era Debt

Increased borrowing from governments is helping fuel sales records since the shock of the pandemic upended budgets. The share of the investment-grade bond universe issued by government-related entities reached 69% this year, the greatest proportion since the global financial crisis in 2010, according to Bloomberg calculations.

That shift was noted by the International Monetary Fund last month. It warned global public debt will rise above 100% of GDP by 2029, which would be the highest level since 1948, when nations were recovering from World War II.

Among the year’s publicly-syndicated sales, Spain has led the way for sovereigns, raising €35 billion ($40 billion) across a trio of offerings. The UK’s £14 billion ($18 billion) gilt deal in September and Italy’s €18 billion two-part January offering also rank among the biggest. Spain and Italy both drew record orderbooks of more than €140 billion.

To be sure, it’s far from a debt market free-for-all. The recent jumbo corporate deals have come from highly-rated and well-recognized names, and the huge amounts being raised could crowd out other potential issuers.

There are already signs the supply spree is starting to weigh on risk premiums. Average US high-grade spreads widened to 82 basis points on Monday, the most since July 1.

“There are many lower-rated bonds that investors are happy to sell and buy these fresh liquid, AA rated deals,” said Mark Clegg, a senior fixed-income trader at Allspring Global Investments. “The question remains, when can investors wave the white flag and feel comfortable with an overweight posture in the technology sector.”

M&A Funding

Still, the depth of liquidity is playing out in junk debt markets as well. A swathe of lenders including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley just piled into the biggest leveraged buyout ever, joining a $20 billion debt financing backing the buyout of video-game maker Electronic Arts Inc.

Global merger and acquisition deal values topped $1 trillion in the third quarter for only the second time on record, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s a turnaround from a sluggish environment earlier in the year following US tariff turmoil.

Conor Hillery, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s co-head for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, expects to see “big M&A in EMEA next year,” given lower rates, a better view on valuations and a backlog of deals to get through. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer David Solomon has expressed similar views recently, observing “an incredible pickup in activity.”

“For a high quality single B or BB credit, the buyout financing market could double the size of even the largest financings the market has seen this year,” Anish Shah, Morgan Stanley’s global head of debt capital markets, told Bloomberg at the bank’s recent leveraged finance conference.

“Capacity right now is incredibly high. We are in the expansion environment for the right asset and if you start to see a combination of syndicated and private credit investors come together then debt sizes will rise meaningfully,” Shah said. “There is so much cash in the current market.”

–With assistance from Brian Smith, Finbarr Flynn and Greg Ritchie.

(Updates volumes, annual returns and adds details of Thursday’s sales.)

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