Apple and Microsoft both have bigger piles of cash than the UK Treasury, a report has revealed. The figures, calculated by the US Trust, show that several companies have more money to spend than the UK does.
Apple has the largest cash reserves, with £95bn, far greater than the cash held by Malaysia, Turkey or Poland.
The large cash reserves stem from reluctance on the part of US companies to bring overseas profits back, due to the taxes they would be forced to pay.
Non-financial US firms had a staggering £956bn to spend at the end of 2013, a 100 per cent increase in their cash balances from 2007.
Microsoft has the second largest cash reserve of any company at £50bn, £45bn less than Apple.
Microsoft and Apple’s cash reserves both dwarf the UK’s figure of £41bn. Other companies with large amounts of cash to spend include Google (£35bn), Verizon Communications (£32bn), and Cisco Systems (£28bn). The combined cash reserves of Apple, Microsoft, Google, Verizon Communications and Pfizer stood at £241 billion by the end of 2013.
The figures were calculated by analysing company filings, financial metrics from Moody’s Corporation, and data from the International Monetary Fund.
Joseph Quinlan, chief market strategist at the US Trust, said: “Amid a world of uncertainty, one thing is without question: most U.S. corporations have plenty of capital at their disposal.”
“Indeed, capital is in abundance among America’s largest non-financial companies, with Moody’s noting that U.S. firms were sitting on some $1.6 trillion in cash at the end of 2013, a 12pc increase from a year ago.”
“The latest figure is nearly double the level of 2008, signalling the extent by which U.S. firms have built out their cash positions over the post-crisis period.”
