BHP Billiton announced yesterday that it had sold €2.0 billion of bonds. The debt issue follows a US$5.25 billion global bond issue in February.The multi-tranche global bonds were sold at spreads ranging from 62 basis points over US Treasury bonds for three years to 102 bps over swap for 30 years.This time, BHP sold €2.125 billion of six-and-a-half-year bonds with a 2.125 per cent coupon and €750 million of 12-year bonds with a three per cent coupon. This equates to a spread of 147.1 bps for the shorter dated bonds and 164.3 basis points over German bonds for the longer dated bonds.To put it another way, the spread to mid-swaps was 65 bps and 100 bps, respectively. This is not particularly cheap funding for BHP. This may be an indication of generally widening credit spreads, or, alternatively, the US bond markets are particularly cheap. It could also indicate a lack of investor interest in euro-denominated assets or the whole commodities and China boom story has lost its lustre.BHP Billiton is rated A+ by Standard & Poor's.