Debt Investors

We recognise that debt investors are key stakeholders in our business and are committed to keeping all investors informed of developments affecting the Group.

In this section you will find details about our financial policy and credit ratings, outstanding bonds, liquidity management and bank facilities.

Group Treasury operates as a centralised service managing debt financing, liquidity, interest rate and foreign exchange risks. The Board reviews and mandates policies for financial risk management.

The funding policy of the Group is to maintain a broad portfolio of rated public debt, diversified by source and maturity and to maintain committed bank facilities sufficient to ensure that at all times £200m of undrawn committed facilities are available.

Our balance sheet can be affected by currency translation movements. Our policy is to match foreign currency assets and cash-flows with foreign currency debt to provide a natural hedge for a significant part of the translation exposure.

The amount of risk to any one counterparty is restricted according to credit rating. We continually monitor our exposure to counterparties and their credit ratings.

Exposures to interest rate fluctuations on borrowings are managed by using interest rate financial instruments. It is our policy to keep 40-60% of gross debt at fixed rates of interest over the medium-term.

The main committed bank facility available to the Group is a US$800m committed bank facility which expires in November 2024. At 31 July 2022 it was undrawn.

Additionally, the company has other bank facilities available to it for working capital, cash management and bonding purposes.

The Group's strategy is to finance its balance sheet primarily from the rated long-term public US, UK and European capital markets to maintain a diversified investor profile and a balanced long-term maturity profile and pro-actively refinance maturities as they fall due.