Debt Investors

• The Board reviews the Company’s ongoing liquidity risks annually as part of the planning process and on an ad-hoc basis.
• The Board considers short-term requirements against available sources of funding, taking into account forecast cash flows.
• The Company manages liquidity risk by maintaining access to a number of sources of funding which are sufficient to meet anticipated funding requirements.
• Specifically, the Company uses US commercial paper, committed bank facilities and cash resources to manage short-term liquidity.
• The Company has $4.1bn of revolving committed credit facilities provided by 9 relationship banks.  These facilities were undrawn as at 31 December 2018, of which $3.4bn will mature in April 2022
• The Company maintains strong access to the capital markets for long-term funding through an established Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme and a SEC registered shelf programme.
• These different funding programmes ensure that the Company has sufficient flexibility when choosing the maturity, currency, interest rate (fixed/floating), and geographical mix of investors.

A summary of utilisation from the Company’s debt programmes as at 31 December 2018 is shown in the table below.

 

AstraZeneca chooses to hold a significant cash balance to meet operational funding needs. Gross cash and investments position as at 31 December 2018 was $5.7bn

¹  FX converted at 31 December 2018 spot rates (USD/EUR 0.874049; USD/GBP 0.784745)

Below is a summary of the bonds issued or guaranteed by AstraZeneca PLC as at 31 December 2018, sorted by maturity date.

AstraZeneca PLC aims to maintain a strong, investment grade credit rating. The Company has solicited credit ratings from Moody’s and S&P, which are assigned as:

Key contacts at the respective agencies are:

Moody’s

Analyst: Knut Slatten

Phone: +33-1-5330-1077

S&P

Analyst: Nicolas Baudouin

Phone: +33-1-4420- 6672

The Company operates with a centralised Treasury structure so that key Treasury risks are managed at a Group level.

Investment policy

• Security and liquidity
• Financial counterparty limits
   

Foreign Exchange Policy

• Foreign Exchange exposures managed centrally
• Transactional currency exposures substantially hedged
   

Interest Rate Policy

• Level of floating rate debt matched to cash
• Significant portion of financial liabilities at fixed interest rates
   

Credit Risk

• Cash managed centrally
• Derivatives positions fully collateralised
   

Liquidity Policy

• Prudent level of available cash and unutilised credit facilities
• Group funding centrally managed