LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - Companies around the globe took on a record $456 billion of net new debt in 2022/23, although higher interest rates should reduce appetite for new borrowing ahead, Janus Henderson said in a report published on Wednesday. The net new debt taken on in 2022/23 pushed outstanding net debt up by 6.2% on a constant-currency basis to $7.80 trillion, surpassing a previous peak in 2020/21, at the height of the COVID pandemic, Janus Henderson's annual corporate debt index showed. One fifth of the net-debt increase reflected companies such as Alphabet and Meta (META.O), which owns Facebook and Instagram, spending some of their "vast cash mountains", Janus Henderson said. Higher interest rates were also expected to dampen appetite for further corporate borrowing and Janus Henderson said it expected net debt to decline by 1.9% in 2023/2024, falling to $7.65 trillion on a constant-currency basis. "The increase in interest rates will feed through into the weaker cohort of credit quality much quicker than in investment grade (bonds)," Briggs said.

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Persons: Janus Henderson, Janus, James Briggs, Briggs, We're, Chiara Elisei, Dhara Ranasinghe, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Companies, Verizon, Thomson Locations: U.S, Europe