For public companies committed lines of credit are very common, probably more so than public bonds if you look at the universe of publicly traded firms. Why the

For public companies committed lines of credit are very common, probably more so than public bonds if you look at the universe of publicly traded firms. Why they get them is not entirely clear, liquidity insurance is the obvious answer but there could be others e.g. reputation building or establishing banking relationships. Having a billion dollars of credit and using it responsibly can be a good signal. These things are really cheap too, good rates and very small commitment fees (1/4% per $ per year or so).