The iPhone maker may use the proceeds for stock buybacks.

Apple has sold a record $1.6bn worth of bonds in Australia, in the largest ever debt issuance by any non-financial company in the country.

The company sold A$1.15bn ($830m) of seven-year notes and $1.1bn ($794m) of four-year securities.

Analysts expect the iPhone maker to break the record for the biggest international corporate bond issue ever sold in Australian dollars.

The bond issue breaks the record set by Anglo-Australian mining firm BHP Billiton when it issued $1bn worth of five-year bonds in October 2012.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank managed the sale on behalf of Apple.

Apple may use the proceeds of its bond sale to provide returns to shareholders through stock buybacks and dividends.

Since November last year Apple has gone beyond the US borders to raise debt, with bond issuance in pounds, Swiss francs, yen and euros.

Earlier this year, Apple sold $6.5bn in bonds to fund its share buyback programme.

In the third quarter of this year, the company returned more than $13bn to shareholders via its capital return programme. Apple aims to return more than $130bn to shareholders this year.

The company said in April that it is increasing the capital-return programme by $70bn through March 2017 and will access both the US and international debt markets for it.