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Heidelberg Updates Loan Repayment Progress

In the summer of 2009, Heidelberg announced it had arranged a financing package from three main parties totaling EUR 1.4 billion for the period up to the middle of 2012. This week, the company announced it has repaid its commitments to one of the entities, a loan from the Special Program of the KfW (Reconstruction Loan Corporation).

“We would like to thank the KfW for supporting us during the financial and economic crisis and helping us to bridge this difficult period. It was, however, always understood that we would revert to capital market financing as soon as possible. As announced, we therefore used all the net proceeds from the capital increase in September 2010 to reduce our financial liabilities. We then repaid the outstanding sum of approximately EUR 102 million due under the KfW loan ahead of schedule on December 30, 2010. This has simplified our financing structure and will also facilitate our future refinancing,” said Heidelberg CFO Dirk Kaliebe.

According to Heidelberg, the proceeds from the capital increase and the positive free cash flow in the first half of the current financial year enabled the company to lower its financial liabilities from some EUR 816 million at the end of March 2010 to around EUR 377 million by the end of September 2010. Financing has fallen from the previous level of EUR 1.4 billion to just under EUR 900 million. It is now made up of the credit line supported by guarantee pledges from the State and the syndicated credit line from a consortium of banks. These two credit lines have each been reduced to around EUR 445 million.

KfW Bankengruppe has been closely connected to the economic development of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since its founding in 1948 and according to its statutory mission, KfW has been supporting change and encouraging forward-looking ideas – in Germany, Europe and throughout the world. The group claims to have provided nearly one trillion euros in loans over the last 60 years.