Financial position

Exceptionally strong liquidity position

The principles and aims of financial management presented in the  2008 Annual Report starting on page 43 are still valid and are being pursued unchanged.

In the first half of 2009, the euro remained the main currency in which the Group’s debt is denominated. Its share of our financial debt rose, especially because of the mandatory exchangeable bond issued as part of the sale of Postbank and the collateralisation of the put option. The other basic financial data outlined in the Annual Report are still valid.

Our credit rating was reviewed in the second quarter of 2009 by international rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service. Standard & Poor’s confirmed our BBB+ rating, whereas Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its rating to Baa1. Nevertheless, both agencies continue to rate our creditworthiness highly. As a result, the crisis on the financial markets is not affecting either our refinancing options or our liquidity position, especially since our liquidity is exceptionally strong – in part because of the sale of Postbank.

As a result, only an average of around 7.4% (previous year: 18.1%) of our unsecured committed credit lines were used. The total volume of these is currently €2.6 billion, €200 million of which had been used as at 30 June. We did not have recourse to our commercial paper programme, which we launched at the beginning of 2008, in the first half of 2009.