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2014 Registration Document
Comments on 2014 fiscal year
4
Financial position
4.2.4
Financing and liquid resources
Purchases and disposals without change in control represented in 2014
a €311 millions net inflow and consisted primarily of the sale of 10% of
our Brazilian subsidiary to Peninsula, an outside investor, offset by the
purchase of the minority interests in Carcoop (France).
Changes in the scope of consolidation and discontinued operations
had a negative impact of €64 million. In 2013, the €752 million positive
impact was mainly due to the sale of Indonesian operations during the
year and the loss of control of the subsidiary in Turkey.
Corporate Treasury and Financing’s liquidity management strategy
consists of:
■
promoting conservative financing strategies in order to ensure that
the Group has a sufficiently strong credit rating and can raise funds
on the bond and commercial paper markets;
■
maintaining a presence in the debt market by conducting regular EMTN
and bond issues, mainly in euros, in order to guarantee a balanced
maturity profile. The Group’s issuance capacity under its Euro Medium
Term Notes (EMTN) program totals €12 billion;
■
using the €5 billion commercial paper program listed on NYSE
Euronext Paris;
■
maintaining undrawnmedium-termbank facilities that can be drawn down
at any time according to the Group’s needs. At December 31, 2014,
the Group had three undrawn syndicated lines of credit obtained
from a pool of leading banks, for a total of €4.45 billion. Group policy
consists of keeping these facilities on stand-by as backing for issues
under the commercial paper program. The loan agreements for the
syndicated lines of credit include the usual commitments and default
clauses, including pari passu, negative pledge, change of control
and cross-default clauses and a clause restricting substantial sales
of assets. They do not, however, include any rating trigger, although
the pricing grid may be adjusted up or down to reflect changes in the
long-term credit rating. None of the agreements contains a material
adverse change clause.
The Group considers that its liquidity position was strong at December 31,
2014 since, at that date, it had €4.45 billion in committed syndicated
lines of credit with no drawing restrictions, expiring in 2017, 2018 and
2019. In addition, it had sufficient cash reserves at that date to meet its
debt repayment obligations in the coming year.
The Group’s debt profile is balanced, with no peak in refinancing needs
across the remaining life of bond debt, which averages four years and
four months.
At December 31, 2014, both Carrefour and Carrefour Banque were
rated BBB+/A-2, with a stable outlook by S&P.
4.2.5
Restrictions on the use of capital resources
There are no material restrictions on the Group’s ability to recover or
use the assets and settle the liabilities of foreign operations, except for
those resulting from local regulations in its host countries.
The local supervisory authorities may require banking subsidairies to
keep a certain level of capital and liquidities, limit their exposure to other
Group parties, and comply with other ratios.
4.2.6
Expected sources of funding
To meet its commitments, Carrefour can use its free cash flow and raise debt capital using its EMTN and commercial paper programs, as well as
its credit lines.