Refinancing

REFINANCING STRUCTURE OF THE VOLKSWAGEN GROUP
as of December 31, 2018

In 2018, the Volkswagen Group focused its refinancing activities on diversifying instruments and markets.

In June 2018, we boosted net liquidity by placing unsecured, subordinated hybrid notes with an aggregate principal amount of €2.75 billion. The perpetual notes were issued in two tranches and can only be called by the issuer. One tranche with a volume of €1.25 billion has a first call date after six years, while the other tranche of €1.5 billion has a first call date after ten years. The transaction also served to refinance a tranche with a principal amount of €1.25 billion from the hybrid notes issued in 2013; the tranche was terminated in September 2018.

Furthermore, a senior, unsecured benchmark bond for the Automotive Division was issued in Europe in four tranches with a volume of €4.25 billion and in two GBP 800 million tranches. Four benchmark bonds with an aggregate volume of €9.35 billion were issued for the Financial Services Division. In addition to this, private placements were issued in various currencies.

Outside the European refinancing market, the Volkswagen Group was active in the North American capital market. With an aggregate issue volume of USD 8.0 billion, we succesfully reentered the US capital market for the first time since the emergence of the diesel issue.

Notes with a volume of around CAD 2.25 billion were issued in the Canadian refinancing market.

A further focus of refinancing was the continued issue of commercial paper, especially in the European region and in euros, as well as in the United States.

Asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions were another important element of our refinancing activities. ABS transactions in excess of €7.1 billion were placed in Europe. In addition, ABS transactions were issued in Australia, Japan, Turkey and the USA among other countries.

The proportion of fixed-rate instruments in the past year was roughly three times as high as the proportion of variable-rate instruments.

In all refinancing arrangements, we aim to exclude interest rate and currency risk with the simultaneous use of derivatives.

The table below shows how our money and capital market programs were utilized as of December 31, 2018 and illustrates the financial flexibility of the Volkswagen Group:

Volkswagen AG’s syndicated credit line of €5.0 billion agreed in July 2011 was extended in 2015 to April 2020 by exercising an extension option. This credit facility remained unused as of the end of 2018.

Of the syndicated credit lines worth a total of €7.6 billion at other Group companies, €1.8 billion has been drawn down. In addition, Group companies had arranged bilateral, confirmed credit lines with national and international banks in various other countries for a total of €4.2 billion, of which €1.8 billion was drawn down.