Good credit ratings and solid financing

BASF has good credit ratings, especially in comparison with competitors in the chemical industry. BASF was rated “A1/P-1/outlook stable” by rating agency Moody’s and “A+/A-1/outlook negative” by Standard & Poor’s. We have solid financing. At the end of 2015, the financial indebtedness of the BASF Group was €15.2 billion with liquid funds of €2.2 billion. The average maturity of our financial indebtedness was 5.2 years. The company’s medium to long-term debt financing is predominantly based on corporate bonds with a balanced maturity profile. For short-term debt financing, BASF SE has a commercial paper program with an issuing volume of up to $12.5 billion. As backup for the commercial paper program, there are committed, broadly syndicated credit lines of €6 billion available; these are not being used at this time.

Analysts’ recommendations

Around 25 financial analysts regularly publish studies on BASF. At the end of 2015, 32% recommended buying our shares (end of 2014: 41%) and 40% recommended holding them (end of 2014: 38%), while 28% had a sell rating (end of 2014: 21%). On December 31, 2015, the average target share price according to analyst consensus estimates was €76.86.