AT&T biggest winner from record corporate bond rally

NEW YORK: AT&T Inc, with $6.63 billion of debt coming due, may be the biggest beneficiary of the record rally in US corporate bonds in 2009.

Borrowing costs have fallen to almost a five-year low, meaning the Dallas-based phone company and the rest of corporate America with $429 billion of debt maturing are poised to shave $17.4 billion off annual interest expense in 2010, according Moody's Investors Service and data compiled by Bloomberg.

Investors are lending money to borrowers at ever-cheaper rates as the economy rebounds and borrowers accumulate cash. Non-financial companies had $708 billion of cash at the end of the third quarter, up from about $500 billion between 2004 and 2008, according to New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co.