Bonds

The rating agency Standard & Poor's reviewed EnBW for the first time in December 2000. In January 2002 the first rating by Moody's followed. Both rating agencies gave credit standing of EnBW a high rating in the A category. Standard & Poor's and Moody's continued to rate EnBW in the A category in the years that followed. In May 2009 for the first time the rating agency Fitch published their evaluation of EnBW, also in the A category. This made EnBW an attractive proposition in the debt capital market.

On January 28, 2002 EnBW launched a debt issuance programme for medium- and long-term financing on the capital market. The debt issuance programme, which is listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange, is a standardised documentation platform for the issuance of bonds. Both private placements and publicly syndicated bond issues were a possibility, with flexible options allowing a choice of all major currencies and a range of maturities. The Debt Issuance Programme currently amounts to € 7 billion (as of May 2009).

Under the established debt issuance programme, EnBW launched two debut bonds on February 15, 2002 through its subsidiary EnBW International Finance B.V. (Schouwburgplein 30-34, 3012 CL Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Since then, EnBW has launched further bonds. The issues were always oversubscribed. The decisive factors for this success were our favourable rating, our financial ratios, the clear focus on our core business –energy – and our proactive investor communication strategy.

Moreover, EnBW has continuously extended its access to the debt capital market in the past and today has access to the bank and capital market through the following platforms:

• In April 2002, EnBW established a syndicated loan amounting for refinancing purposes on the bank market. As of March 2011 this general liquidity reserve amounts to € 2 billion.
• In May 2003, EnBW launched a euro commercial paper programme (€ 2 billion) which serves to allow issuance of unsecured notes on the money market.