Some respite for Boeing in US$10bil bond offering

Solid backing: A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 being guided to a gate at Baltimore-Washington Airport in Baltimore, Maryland. Boeing has the tools to defend its investment-grade status. — Bloomberg

NEW YORK: Boeing Co raised US$10bil from a bond sale that attracted about US$77bil of orders and allowed the planemaker to ease some of its financial strains by refinancing part of its massive debt load.

The outsized demand for the bonds, which Boeing attracted by initially dangling a relatively juicy yield premium to prospective investors, allowed the American company to ultimately shrink that premium before it priced.