RWE Bonds and Credit Rating

RWE AG has a wide range of tools which they can use in addition to cash flows from operating activities to meet their financing needs.

Debt Issuance Programmes (DIPs) give the company latitude in procuring debt capital on the capital market for the long term. A DIP is a framework prospectus for the flexible issuance of bonds. RWE AG’s current programme enables us to make issuances with a total face value of €10 billion.

Commercial Paper Programme is used for shortterm refinancing

RWE AG has a Commercial Paper Programme for short-term refinancing, which was updated last year. It enables RWE to raise funds equivalent up to €5 billion on the money market (before update: US$ 5 billion). We only made moderate use of these funds in the past fiscal year. At times, a total of up to €1.2 billion in commercial paper was outstanding. 

Furthermore, we also have a syndicated credit line of €5 billion, which secures the company’s liquidity. The syndicated credit line consists of two tranches, with terms of two and five years. They can be prolonged one year each. The credit line is provided by 27 international banks. So far, RWE has not used the syndicated credit line.

Rating agencies certify creditworthiness under the “investment grade” category 

The leading rating agencies Moody’s and Fitch consistently certify our creditworthiness under the “investment grade” category, not least due to our conservative financial policy. Moody‘s gives our long-term creditworthiness a rating of ‘Baa2’ with a stable rating outlook. Fitch rates us one grade better at ‘BBB+’ – with a stable rating outlook.

Creditworthiness checks by independent rating agencies have a substantial effect on a company's options for raising outside capital. The better the rating, the easier the access to international credit markets and the more affordable the borrowings.

RWE ended its rating by the agency Standard & Poor’s on the 15th of February 2018.
Further information