By TheStreet Staff What Is a Corporate Bond? In a nutshell, a corporatebond is like a loan from an investor to a company, which the company repays with interest by the bond’s maturity date. Businesses consider bonds to be an attractive way to raise funds for their operations or capital expenditures because the interest they must pay to investors is less than what they would owe to a bank through a loan. And unlike selling stock, a company is not giving away ownership rights when it issues bonds. There are many types of corporate bonds, although most are issued with maturities between 1 and 30 …