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 and/or Euro-commercial paper programmes, committed bank facilities and cash resources to manage short-term liquidity.
• 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.
• The Company also has access to Term Loans provided by the Group’s relationship banks. At 31 December 2023, $2bn of loans were outstanding in respect of funding the acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceutical, Inc..
• The Company has $6.9bn of revolving committed credit facilities provided by 13 relationship banks. These facilities were undrawn as at 31 December 2023.  $2bn will mature in February 2025 and $4.9bn in April 2029.
• 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.

AstraZeneca chooses to hold a significant cash balance to meet operational funding needs. Gross cash and investments position as at 31 December 2023 was $6bn

¹  Notional bond values. FX converted at 31 December 2023 spot rates (USD/EUR 0.903; USD/GBP 0.784). Current portion of leases of $271m are included in 2024, whilst non-current Leases of $857m have been excluded from the chart.

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: Martin Hallmark

Phone: +44 20 7772 1953

S&P

Analyst: Paulina Grabowiec

Phone: +44 20 7176 7051

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

Liquidity Policy

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

Investment policy

• Security and liquidity
• Financial counterparty limits
   

Foreign Exchange Policy

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

Interest Rate Policy

• Aim to broadly match level of floating rate debt to cash over time
• Significant portion of financial liabilities at fixed interest rates
   

Credit Risk

• Cash managed centrally
• Derivatives positions predominately cash collateralised