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 nominal value of €10 billion.

Commercial Paper Programme is used for shortterm refinancing

RWE AG has a Commercial Paper Programme for shortterm refinancing that enables it to raise funds equivalent to up to US$5 billion on the money market. We intermittently used a maximum of €0.8 billion of this headroom in the year 2018.

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 for one and two years, respectively. The credit line is provided by 27 international banks.

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. 

In light of the increased financial flexibility as a result of the IPO of innogy in October 2016, for example, and the refund of the nuclear fuel tax in June 2017, we were able to further optimise our capital structure. Our hybrid capital currently stands at around €1.1 billion. At the end of 2016 it was still around €3.9 billion.

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