37. Financial liabilities

The company’s medium-term and long-term financing needs are covered by an ongoing capital market bond programme with a maximum volume of €5 billion. On 13 February 2018, the remaining due amount of a maturing bond in the amount of €50 million with a coupon of 3.5% and on 11 May 2018, a maturing bond of €500 million with a coupon of 2.25% were repaid on time. On 6 March 2018, a bond of €500 million was placed with a coupon of 1.125%. By 30 September 2018, €2.401 billion of the bond issuance programme had been utilised up to.

Short-term financing requirements are covered through the Euro Commercial Paper Programme with a maximum volume of €2 billion. On average, the programme was used at €583 million during the reporting period. As of 30 September 2018, the utilisation amounted to €497 million (30/9/2017: €754 million).

In addition, METRO has access to syndicated credit facilities totalling €1,750 million (30/9/2017: €1,750 million) with terms ending between 2021 and 2023. If the credit facilities are used, the interest rates range between EURIBOR +50.0 basis points (BP) and EURIBOR +55.0 BP. As was the case in the previous year, the credit facilities were not utilised in financial year 2017/18. The contract terms for the syndicated credit facilities provide for a decrease of 10 BP in the spread if METRO’s credit rating is raised by one grade. In the event of a downgrade in METRO’s rating, the margins increase by 25 BP.

As of 30 September 2018, METRO had access to additional bilateral bank credit facilities totalling €633 million (30/9/2017: €531 million), of which €318 million (30/9/2017: €174 million) had a remaining term of up to one year. As of the closing date, €383 million of the bilateral credit facilities had been utilised (30/9/2017: €281 million), of which €318 million (30/9/2017: €174 million) had a remaining term of up to one year. As of the closing date, there were €250 million of free multi-year bilateral credit facilities available.

Default by a lender can be covered at any time by the existing undrawn credit facilities or the available money and capital market programmes. METRO therefore does not bear any creditor default risk.

METRO principally does not provide collateral for financial liabilities. One exception concerns the first-time consolidation of METRO PROPERTIES GmbH & Co. KG as well as its subsidiaries in 2003. As of 30 September 2018, collateral securities in the amount of €13 million were provided for financial liabilities (30/9/2017: €28 million). The previous year’s figures include €15 million attributable to the hypermarket business to be disposed of.

The following tables show the maturity structure of the financial liabilities. The carrying amounts and fair values indicated include the interest accrued when the maturity is less than one year.

Redeemable loans that are shown under liabilities to banks are listed with the remaining terms corresponding to their redemption date.

The following tables show the interest rate structure of the financial liabilities:

The fixed interest rate on short- and medium-term financial liabilities and the interest rate adjustment dates of all fixed-interest financial liabilities are essentially the same as those shown. The repricing dates for variable interest rates are less than one year.