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By Bloomberg

Apple Inc. may sell a debut yen-denominated bond “in the near future” after hiring banks to arrange investor calls last month, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said.

The iPhone maker will offer the securities subject to market conditions, according to an e-mailed statement Monday from Goldman Sachs, which said in May it was hired with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. for the potential financing. Apple is marketing five-year notes at around zero to three basis points more than yen swaps, and may sell the securities as soon as June 4, people familiar with the matter said.

A yen debt sale would allow Apple to take advantage of Japanese corporate borrowing costs near record lows while giving investors a chance to put money into the world’s most valuable company. Buyers of yen notes from foreign firms are hungry for issuance after such offerings slid 13 percent this year to 1.84 trillion yen ($14.8 billion) as falling yields in Europe lured more borrowers there.

“Apple is a highly-rated company, and a rare corporate issuer for Japanese investors, so there will probably be demand,” said Ryosuke Kaneko, a credit analyst in Tokyo at Mizuho Securities Co., a unit of Japan’s third-largest bank by market value. “The risk for Japanese investors is low.”

Moody’s Investors Service rates the technology giant Aa1, its second-highest grade and three levels above the score for Japanese government debt. A yen bond sale would be the first in the Japanese currency for the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The average yield on yen Samurai securities sold by overseas issuers was 0.45 percent on May 29, one basis points from the 0.44 percent level in January that’s the lowest on record in Bank of America Merrill Lynch data.

Apple’s net income jumped 33 percent to $13.6 billion in the quarter ended in March as revenue rose 27 percent to $58 billion in the period. Apple ended the January-March quarter with $194 billion in cash on hand.

The Cupertino, California-based company sold $8 billion in a seven-part dollar debt offering last month. The deal included five-year bonds issued at 45 basis points over treasuries.