At A Premium

Interest rates have been steady at 6% for B-rated bonds, but the Fed decided to lower rates half a point. The company that issued bonds at 8.5% five years earlier, and which still has 15 years to go until they are paid off, seizes the opportunity to buy back their own bonds...at a premium...refinance them, and issue new paper at a cheaper 5.5%.

The phrase "at a premium" usually refers to bond redemptions in this vein, such that the issuer pays something like 102 cents on the dollar to buy back their bonds, and presumably reissue paper at cheaper interest rates. The phrase also refers to equity transactions, when Amazon or some other company buys the shares of another company "at a premium"...like, the shares of Shmears, the greatest seller of bagel spread, were trading at $14 last week and, after Amazon bid $17 a share to own the whole company, those shares are said to have been sold "at a premium" to their former $1.14-ish a share price.