Group Management Report

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Refinancing

REFINANCING STRUCTURE OF THE VOLKSWAGEN GROUP

as of December 31, 2022

Refinancing structure of the Volkswagen Group (bar chart)

The Volkswagen Group carried out several successful transactions in the international capital markets in 2022 despite volatile and difficult market conditions.

In February 2022, the hybrid note issued in March 2015 with a principal amount of €1.1 billion was canceled with effect from March 20, 2022.

In March 2022, Volkswagen International Finance N.V. placed two hybrid notes with a total volume of €2.25 billion. Some of the proceeds from this transaction were used to refinance the hybrid note issued in 2017, which had been duly canceled in November with effect from December 14, 2022. A second green bond was issued in June 2022 under the Green Finance Framework presented in 2020. At €1.5 billion, this was sufficient to almost completely refinance the expenses arising from the Green Project Portfolio for the years 2017 to 2020. The Volkswagen Group unveiled a new Green Finance Framework in November 2022. This allows the Company to finance capital expenditures that are aligned with the EU Taxonomy, whereby Volkswagen will voluntarily limit itself to all-electric vehicles. On the basis of the new framework, an amount of €2.5 billion was placed in the same month by way of three green bonds.

Volkswagen Group of America Finance, LLC, raised USD3 billion from investors over the US refinancing market in May 2022. Notes with a volume of CAD750 million were issued in Canada in November 2022.

Official euro benchmark bonds with an aggregate volume of €2 billion were issued for the Financial Services Division. In addition to this, securities were issued in various currencies and regions.

Alongside the placement of senior, unsecured bonds, asset-backed securities (ABS) transactions were another element of our refinancing activities. In Europe, public ABS transactions with a total volume of €2.75 billion were placed. Public ABS transactions were also issued in Japan and China.

The Volkswagen Group was also actively involved in the commercial paper market with several issuing companies.

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

In our refinancing arrangements, we generally aim to exclude interest rate and currency risk as far as possible with the simultaneous use of derivatives.

The following table shows which financial instruments were utilized on the money and capital markets as of December 31, 2022 and illustrates the financial flexibility of the Volkswagen Group:

Financial instruments

 

Authorized volume
€ billion

 

Amount utilized on Dec. 31, 2022 € billion

 

 

 

 

 

Commercial paper

 

42.0

 

8.7

Bonds

 

194.3

 

95.7

of which hybrid issues

 

 

 

13.9

Asset-backed securities

 

104.9

 

41.3

Volkswagen AG’s syndicated credit line of €10.0 billion agreed in December 2019 was unused at the end of 2022.

Of the syndicated credit lines with a total of €12.4 billion at other Group companies, €0.4 billion has been drawn down. The Volkswagen Group continued to have bilateral confirmed credit lines with national and international banks in various countries for a total of €4.9 billion, of which €0.6 billion was drawn down.

Hybrid notes
Hybrid notes issued by Volkswagen are classified in their entirety as equity. The issuer has call options at defined dates during their perpetual maturities. They pay a fixed coupon until the first possible call date, followed by a variable rate depending on their terms and conditions.