FORTUNE — Verizon Communications (VZ) today formally launched a $49 billion bond sale to help finance its $130 billion acquisition of Vodafone’s 45% stake in Verizon Wireless. It would be the largest investment-grade corporate bond offering of all time, easily topping Apple’s (AAPL) $17 billion issuance from this past spring:
Verizon’s offering also could help turn around the entire corporate bond market’s fortunes, which have sagged so far in 2013.
According to Thomson Reuters, investment-grade corporate bond offerings currently total $1.77 trillion in 2013. That’s down 7% from the same period in 2012. If the Verizon deal gets added in, however, the gap shrinks to just 4.6%.
Moreover, Verizon would put U.S. issuance up 21% from this time last year (for the highest YTD total since 2008). It also would increase the U.S. share of global issuance in 2013 from 28% to 30%.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), one of Verizon’s bankers, is currently atop the leaderboard for global corporate investment grade bonds with a 7% marketshare. Below is the entire list:
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