The world's most profitable company, Saudi Aramco, smashed expectations to secure a debut bond issue with lower yields than the Saudi Arabian government, which owns the company. That implies, counterintuitively, that investors regard the company as being less risky than the government which owns it.
Investors piled into the world's most profitable company after it opened up its accounts to the world for the first time ahead of the deal. The bonds were well received and exceeded initial expectations on the yield coming in 20 basis points lower than expected, and lower even than Saudi Arabia's own bond deal from January, according to someone familiar with the deal.
One 30-year section of that debt yielded 210 bps over similar maturity US Treasuries — 35 bps over the 30-year Aramco tranche.