The goal of this research is to examine AstraZeneca Plc’s debt situation, which is a worldwide healthcare firm with a global presence. In the year 2021, the corporation issued $7 billion in bonds to partially fund its mergers and acquisitions activity. The parts that follow include an overview of the firm as well as an analysis of its financial performance. Tables and graphs were used to study and portray the company’s debt structure prior to the issuance of the debt. The company’s current interest risk management methods are thoroughly examined and described. The company’s interest expenditure, as well as its significance in setting risk management techniques, has been established and studied. The company’s various risks linked with the issuing of debt are discussed and examined. Finally, the study considers other funding options that the corporation may have pursued instead of issuing a loan.
AstraZeneca Plc. is a British-Swedish based multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical company with their headquarters at Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. They offer variety of products for the major diseases related to oncology, gastrointestinal, neuroscience, cardiovascular, infection, inflammation and respiratory as well as have been highly involved in the making of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The company was initiated in the year 1999 as a merger between the Swedish based company Astra AB and British company Zeneca Group, which has itself been formed through the demerger of pharmaceutical operation of the Imperial Chemical Industries in the year 1993 (AstraZeneca.com 2022).
After the merger, the business has been one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and have made several acquisitions such as Cambridge Antibody Technology in the year 2006, Spirogen in the year 2013, Medlmmune in the year 2007 and Definiens through Medlmmune in the year 2014. The company has their research and development unit based in three strategic centres namely, Gaithersburg in Maryland, The United States, Gothenburg, Sweden and Cambridge, England. The business has been primarily listed on London Stock Exchange and is one of the constituent of FTSE 100 Index. They have their secondary listings on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, the Bombay Stock Exchange, Nasdaq New York as well as the National Stock Exchange of India (Bloomberg.com 2022).
In the year 2021, the total revenue witnessed an increase of 41% at the actual rate of exchange which is about $37,417 consisting of the product sales of about $36,541 million and the collaboration revenue of around $876 million. In the year 2020, their total revenue was $26,617 million and the same in the year 2019 was about $24,384 million. The net cash flow from the operating activities witnessed an increase of 24% at the actual rate of exchange which is about $5,963 million in the year 2021 and the net cash flow from the operating activities in the year 2020 is around $4,799 million and in the year 2019 it was $2,969 million. Their reported operating profit has witnessed a downfall of about 80% at the actual rate of exchange which is about $1,056 million in the year 2021 and the same in the year 2020 was $5,162 million and in the year 2019 it was around $2,924 million. However, their core operating profit has witnessed an increase of about 35% at the actual exchange rate which is around $9,928 million.
The core operating profit in the year 2020 is about $7,340 million and in the year 2019 was $6,436 million. Similarly, their reported Earnings per share has been decreased by 97% at the actual exchange rate which is about $0.08 in the year 2021 and the same in the year 2020 was around $2.44 and in the year 2019 it was $1.03. Although, their core Earnings per share witnessed an increase of 32% from the previous year, as in the year 2021 their core EPS is $5.29, in the year 2020 it was $4.02 and in the year 2019 it was around $3.50.
Their capital allocation priorities has been set in such a manner that after providing the reinvestment into the business, holding the progressive dividend policy as well as maintaining a high investment grade credit rating, they were able to review the potential investments as value enhancing opportunities. The dividends paid by the company in the year 2021 was $3,856 million, in the year 2020 it was $3,572 million and in the year 2019 it was $3,592 million. The reported expenditure made for the purpose of research and development in the year 2021 was $9,736 million, in the year 2020 it was $5,991 million and in the year $6,059 million.
The following table represents the average debt maturity profile of the current debt profile in the year 2020:
The majority of the debt of the company are denominated in US dollars followed by debt denominated in EUR. The company currently had only one GBP denominated bonds which would be maturing in the year 2031. More than $3500 million of debt funds were going to be matured in the year 2020. The $2500 million of US debt denominated bonds are going to be matured in the year 2037. The debt maturity is going to last as long as the year 2048 and fixed-rate debt accounts for a large component of long-term debt. To manage this balance, the Group employs financial derivatives and forward rate agreements. The bulk of the excess cash is now held in US dollar liquidity funds and investment-grade fixed income assets.
The following table represents the debt profile breakup of the company into current liabilities:
The current bond portfolio in the form of current liabilities are represented in the table above. The bond portfolio includes Euro denominated callable bond with a value of $614 million. The portfolio also includes a 0.875% coupon callable bond which is denominated in Euro and with a face value of $ 919 million. The following table represents the bond of the company denominated as long-term liabilities:
The majority of the long-term bonds issued by the company are callable bonds and have maturity date ranging from 2023 to 2050. The Euro denominated bonds issued by the company have maturity in the year 2024 and 2028 with a face value of $1102 million and $973 million respectively. The company has a sole debt denominated in pound sterling which is going to mature in the year 2037 and has a face value of $475 million. The total interest-bearing loans and borrowings for the company stood at around $20,380 million in the year 2020 which was higher by around 11.81 percent compared to that of 2019.
The current debt portfolio of the company includes three bonds issued by the company in the current year as displayed in the table above. In the US dollar denominated capital markets, the corporation issued $3 billion in bonds with maturities ranging from five to thirty years, with no bonds issued in 2019. In November 2020, AstraZeneca redeemed a $1.6 billion 2.375 percent bond that was slated to mature. In 2019, AstraZeneca paid off a $1.0 billion loan with a 1.95 percent interest rate that was due in September 2019. As of December 31, 2020, the total debt was $20,380 million. Within the following year, $2,386 million of the total debt will be due.
The organization uses a variety of ways to evaluate various forms of debt, including fixed-rate and variable-rate debt. Because mark-to-market fluctuations are modest considering the frequency of yearly resets, publicly traded debt is valued at year-end quoted market prices; floating-rate debt is evaluated at asset value. A Level 1 valuation is the carrying value of loans that have been recognized as fair market value through profit or loss. On January 1, 2019, the Company adopted IFRS 16, which eliminates the classification of contracts as operational or financial leasing. At the start of 2020, the implementation of the new standard resulted in the contract inception of $720 million in lease payments. As a consequence of net cash flows, foreign currency fluctuation, as well as other non-cash activities, net debt at 31 December 2020 was $12,110 million, rising to $11,904 million at the start of each year.
For loans defined under a fair value hedge relationship, carrying value is initially assessed at fair value and remeasured for fair value changes in connection to the hedged risk at each reporting date. All other loans have their costs amortised. All fair values are estimated using the different valuation approaches, with the exception of overdrafts and lease liabilities, where fair value approximates carrying value.
Interest rate risk is referred to the potential towards investment losses which will result from the change within the interest rates. If the interest rate increases, the bond’s value or any other fixed income’s investment will decline. The alteration in the price of the bond due to the change in the interest rates is referred as its duration. The interest rate risk can be minimized by holding back the bonds for a different duration along with that the investors might also allay the interest rate risk through hedging the fixed income investment by swapping the interest rates, option or any other interest rate derivatives.
Interest rate changes can be affected through several investment, however, they might impact the overall value of the bonds as well as other fixed income securities in a direct manner. Bondholders are required to carefully monitor and assess the interest rates as well as make decisions on the basis of interest rates which are perceived to be changed over the time. In case of fixed income securities, as the interest rate increase, the security prices decrease and vice versa, which occurs when the interest rates rise, the opportunity cost associated with holding the bonds rises, which is also the cost of missing out a better investment is higher.
AstraZeneca has maintained an approval from the Board of Directors relating to maintaining a combination of fixed as well as floating rate debts along with utilizing their underlying debts, forward rate agreements as well as interest rate swaps in order to manage this particular combination. A fixed rate debt is referred to the debt instrument with a particular interest rate level over the entire term period, with the regular interest payment which is known as coupons. When the bond is matured, the holder received the initial principle amount along with the interest which is paid by the company.
On the other hand, the floating rate debt security is referred to the bond which has a variable rate of interest upon the fixed rate bond which has a certain interest rate which does not vary or fluctuates. This interest rate is combined with the benchmark rate or Repo rate, in addition to the quoted spread. Underlying debt is referred to the municipal bond terms which are related to the implicit understanding which the debt of the small government-based entities may have a backing from the larger government-based entities’ creditworthiness present in the jurisdiction. It might be difficult for the smaller entities to raise funds on their own, when they do not possess any robust financial position. Although, the implicit backing of the larger entities results in borrowing by the smaller entities and enables them to gain a lower interest rate as per their own obligation. Forward rate agreement is referred to the contract which is conducted over the counter among the parties which determines the interest rates which is to be paid on agreed upon date in the future date.
Alternatively, forward rate agreement is referred to the agreement made for exchanging an interest rate commitment on the notional amount. The FRA is for the determination of the rate which is utilised with the notional value as well as the termination date. Forward rate agreement are generally cash settled, where the payment is on the basis of the net different between the floating rate present in the market which is also the reference rate and the interest rate associated with the contract, where the notional amount generally is not exchanges and the cash amount is on the basis of the rate differential as well as the notional value associated with the contract. Interest rate swap is referred to the agreement which takes place between two parties in order to exchange on interest stream payment for another over a certain set time period.
Swap are the derivative contracts as well as trade over the contract which can consist of exchange of a single type of floating rate for the other which is known as basic swap. Interest rate swaps can be conducted on floating or fixed rates for the purpose of reducing or increasing the exposure in order to bring fluctuations in the interest rates. On 31st December 2021, the company conducts interest rate swaps with the notional value of around $288 million which is fair valued through the profit or loss as well as it has effectively converted the guaranteed debentures of 7% in the year 2023 to the floating rates. There has been no new interest rate swap which has entered during the year 2021. The majority portion of the surplus cash is presently invested in the UD dollar liquidity funds as well as investment grade fixed income securities.
Interest expenses for the company was around $1219 million which is 3% less than the interest expenses reported in the year 2019 where it was around $1260 million. The core net finance expenses of the company were around $782 million in the year 2020 which was higher by 2 percent compared to the previous year (Annual reports 2020). The increase reported in the core net finance was majorly due to an adverse movement in the securities and short-term deposits. The interest on debt and commercial paper accounted for the majority of interest expenses for the company with a value of $ 669 million. The total finance expenses of the company were around $1306 million and the total finance income accounted for around $87 million which makes the net interest expense of $1219 for the company in the year 2020.
Interest expense accounts for 4.6 percent of the total revenue reported by the company in the year 2020. The interest rate coverage ratio of the company in the year 2020 was around 4.23 which implies that the company would be able to meet its interest expenses 4.23 times based on the current level of operating profits. The ratio assesses a firm’s capacity to cover its loan interest expenditure with operational income. A greater ratio shows that the corporation’s ability to meet its interest charges is high and the firm would comfortably meet the its interest expense targets. The interest coverage ratio in the year 2019 was around 2.04 which is half of the current coverage ratio indicates that the company’s position regarding meeting its interest expenses has improved. The interest expense for the year has fallen compared to the expenses in the year 2020 and the amount of operating profit from where the interest would be paid, has almost doubled in value on the back of rising revenue from the company. An interest coverage ratio of more than four indicates that the company has sufficient funds to meet the interest expense and the interest expense is material for the company as it impacts the profitability of the company to a greater extent.
Higher interest rate environment would result in increase in the interest expense for the company in the periods to come and would hamper the growth prospects of the company. The company is sufficiently able to meet the interest expenses for the year but may have to struggle in paying off the once interest rates rises in the future. The coverage ratio may fall in future due to a rise in interest rates and the liquidity of the company may get hampered. A higher interest environment does not only impact the current interest expense scenario of a company, but it may also have an impact on the ability of a company to secure funding in the future. AstraZeneca Plc may face difficulties in arranging for loans or debts at a cheaper rate of required return which impacts the overall weighted average cost of capital. A high weighted average cost of capital may reduce the fair value of the company and impact the decision-making capability of investors.
The increase in the interest rate environment may have detrimental affects on prime rates which are rates at which banks lend money at the cheapest available cost of capital. The rise of interest rates also induces a rise in the prime rates and as a result it would make it difficult for a firm to raise funds from this source of financing due to the higher cost associated with it. It would take longer time for the company to pay off the debt with an increase in the interest rates and they will find it more difficult to secure short term loans which may be required for certain working capital requirement in the future. If the income available to the company is reduced due to the higher rate of interest, alternative means of value creation methods needs to be explored by the firm in managing the investor’s expectations.
According to the information contained in the company’s annual reports for the year 2020, AstraZeneca has received approval from the Board of Directors to maintain a combination of fixed and floating rate debts, as well as to use their underlying debts, forward rate agreements, and interest rate swaps to manage this particular combination. A fixed rate debt refers to a financial instrument with a set interest rate for the whole term duration, as well as periodical interest payments known as coupons. When a bond matures, the holder receives the original principal amount as well as the interest paid by the firm. The company may have difficulty to manage the fixed rate debts issued by the company as it has a potential to impact the overall profitability of the company by means of higher interest payments. If the interest expense of the company is further increased, the company needs to get involved into additional derivatives instruments to manage the risk associated with interest rate volatility.
As analysed in the above sections, the company is having a major number of callable bonds issued in various denominations. Callable bonds are redeemable bonds that the holder can issue at a predetermined rate on the stated callable dates (Elsaify and Roussanov 2016). The issuer of such callable bonds will be capable of paying off their obligation sooner using such a financial instrument. The corporate organisation may opt to call its bond if interest rates are cut. After corporate groups have requested bonds, they can re-borrow them at a lower interest rate. As a result, it is possible to conclude that such bonds will assist in rewarding shareholders by providing more appealing interest rates or coupon rates. Bonds generally come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Optional redeeming enables an issuance to redeem securities based on specifications released at the time of issue. Hence, interest rate risk management would not be of much importance due to the inbuilt risk management feature of the callable bonds.
The company issued $7 billion bonds in the form of fixed rate notes issued by AstraZeneca Plc and backed by AstraZeneca Plc but issued by the fully owned subsidiary of the company AstraZeneca Finance LLC. The debt was issued as a six-tranche global bond offering totaling $7 billion on 25th of May 2021 (Annual reports 2021). The following table summarizes the information about the debt issued by the company in the said month:
|
Details |
Issued by |
|
$1.40 billion in fixed rate notes with a 0.300 percent coupon due on May 26, 2023. |
AstraZeneca Plc |
|
Fixed rate notes worth $0.75 billion with a coupon of 3.000 percent due on May 28, 2051. |
AstraZeneca Plc |
|
$1.60 billion in fixed rate notes with a 0.700 percent yield due on May 28, 2024. |
AstraZeneca Finance LLC (fully and unconditionally backed by AstraZeneca Plc) |
|
$1.25 billion of fixed rate notes with a 1.200 percent yield due on May 28, 2026; |
AstraZeneca Finance LLC (fully and unconditionally backed by AstraZeneca Plc) |
|
$1.25 billion of fixed rate notes with a 1.750 percent yield due on May 28, 2028; |
AstraZeneca Finance LLC (fully and unconditionally backed by AstraZeneca Plc) |
|
Fixed rate notes worth $0.75 billion with a yield of 2.250 percent due on May 28, 2031. |
AstraZeneca Finance LLC (fully and unconditionally backed by AstraZeneca Plc) |
The purpose of issuing these bonds was to fund a portion of the acquisition price of the Alexion Acquisition. The proceeds from the debt issue is expected to be used by the company in paying or refinancing a portion of Alexion’s debt, as well as related fees and expenditures, or for general company objectives, including the refinancing of existing debt.
The company issued a further €800,000,000 in fixed-rate notes with a 0.375 percent yield due on June 3, 2029. under AstraZeneca PLC and AstraZeneca Finance LLC’s $10,000,000,000 EMTN programme for various financing purposes of the company (Debt investors/AstraZeneca Plc 2022).
Issuance of debt is associated with several risks and requires sound management practices to manage the risk of issuing a debt. The following are the risks and solution associated with issuance of bond:
The following graph represents the debt maturity profile of the company for the year ended 2021 after the issuance of $7 billion in debt to finance the mergers and acquisition activity conducted by the company.
The current structure of the debt portfolio of the bank include term loans with a maturity in the year 2023 and 2024. Term loans were not included in the debt portfolio of the company in the year 2020. Similar to the previous year, the portfolio includes debts denominated in GBP and EUR with the GBP debt maturing in the year 2031 and the EUR debt having maturity years starting from 2024, 2028 and 2029. The following table summarizes the bonds issued in the year 2021 with the total value of the bond and the maturity of each bond:
The net book value of the bonds issued in the year 2021 is equal to $7862 million. The repayment dates of the debts issued in the year 2021 starts from the year 2023 with the last maturity year being 2051. Out of all the bonds issued in the year 2021, the bond with 0.375% of coupon rate, face value of $975 million and a maturity date of 2029 was denominated in EUR.
The following graph represents the debt obligations of the company categorized under current liabilities section:
The current debt portfolio includes floating rate notes which were issued under six tranches combinedly by AstraZeneca Plc and AstraZeneca Finance Plc for partly financing mergers and acquisition activities, with a face value of $250 million and maturity date within one year in 2022. The portfolio also has a new inclusion in the form of 2.375% Callable bond with a face value of $999 million with a maturity year of 2022. Other loans which are due within one year and includes commercial paper have a face value of $24 million and makes up the current structure of the debt portfolio of the company in the year 2021.
The following table represents the information about the long-term debt portfolio for the year ended 2021:
The portfolio has a new inclusion of floating bank loans issued in the current year with a face value of $1997 million and a maturity year of 2024. The portfolio also includes a 3 % callable bond issued in the current year with a maturity greater than all the previous bonds included in the portfolio of the company. The new callable bonds are to be redeemed in the year 2051 which is greater than the maturity of the bonds issued previously.
Changes in credit risk had a little impact on the fair value of bonds labelled at fair value via profit or loss during the year. On the back of rising credit risk, the bonds mentioned has gained in value of around $29 million. Any other financial assets and liabilities recognized at fair value in the Group Financial Statements were unaffected by changes in credit risk. The change in fair value that is attributable to the changes in credit risk can be calculated as the change in fair value of a bond due to credit risk and change in fair value of the bond due to a change in credit risk. On bonds designated at fair value via profit or loss, the amount payable at maturity is $287 million (Annual report 2021).
Alternative funding is referred to the process of gaining finance for the company outside of the traditional bank loans in order to gain capital. One such alternative source of funding is Hire Purchase (HP) or Leasing which is a form of asset financial which enables the individual or the firm to control or possess certain asset for an agreed period of time, all while paying the instalments and rent which will cover the depreciation of those assets as well as interest which will cover the capital cost (Kuma and Yosuff 2020). Assets can be defined as anything with monetary value which is either own by the company or by an individual and are listed in the balance sheet of the firm as a tangible item such as real estate or inventory equipment along with the intangible assets such as goodwill and property rights.
Leases usually differs from the term lending where the lessee do not have any form of ownership right over the asset and when the lease contract ends, the lessee has the choice of either extending the lease, introducing a certain buyer for such an asset or returning the asset. Some of the leasers are even entitles for a refund of about 95% of the total sales proceeds when they in turn introduce a new buyer, however, the refund amount will be dependent on the contract between the lessee and the original leaser. It is a financial solution which will be suitable for the business who are wishing to buy an asset without paying the entire value on an immediate basis. The consumer pays the initial deposit where the remainder of such a balance as well as the interest paid over a certain time period. On the completion of such a time period, the ownership of such an asset is transferred to the consumer.
Another form of alternative funding is bank loan which one of the common form of finance for any business organization. It is one of the straightforward and quick method for securing the funding which is required and generally given over a fixed time period. The bank loan is a form of capital or principal repayment or the interest only as well as can be structured in order to meet the requirement of the business. For the business organizations who are seeking to make such purchase of the business premises or commercial mortgages are largely available and will be offered for their flexible terms.
Bank loans can usually be in short, medium or long term all depending on the loan’s purpose. However, in order to take bank loan five main and direct cost needs to be considered such as arrangement fees, interest, insurance, professional advice and covenant compliance costs. Bank loans are generally provided at the cost which is the general interest on owed amount, although, other charges and fees might be applicable depending upon the form of loan take and the lender (Rostamkalaei and Freel 2016). Company can attain a better rate of internet if the bank loan is secured because the risk associated to the lender will usually be minimum and the security which are provided by borrower can be for the business assets, security, guarantees or the third party guarantees or security.
The last alternative source of funding is cash flow financing which is available to the businesses who will sell their goods and services on the business to business basis when there is no staged payments. This form of financing will help in bridging the gap which has been created over the time period when an invoice is being issued to the buyer during the time when the buyer will be paying for the goods or services. The cash flow finance will support the business when finances are required while delivering the purchased order from the buyers. The primary security for the cash flow finance will be the sales invoices. The cash flow finance is alternatively known as the sales finances which includes specific financial solution such as invoice discounting and factoring.
References
(2020) Annual report Astrazeneca.com. Available at: https://www.astrazeneca.com/content/dam/az/Investor_Relations/annual-report-2020/pdf/AstraZeneca_AR_2020.pdf (Accessed: 10 March 2022).
(2021) Annual report Astrazeneca.com. Available at: https://www.astrazeneca.com/content/dam/az/Investor_Relations/annual-report-2021/pdf/AstraZeneca_AR_2021.pdf (Accessed: 10 March 2022).
Bloomberg – Are you a robot? (2022). Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/AZN:LN (Accessed: 10 March 2022).
Debt Investors (2022). Available at: https://www.astrazeneca.com/investor-relations/debt-investors.html (Accessed: 10 March 2022).
Elsaify, A. and Roussanov, N., 2016. Why do firms issue callable bonds?.
Klaus, J. and Selga, ?.K., 2021. How floating rate notes stopped floating: Evidence from the negative interest rate regime. International Review of Financial Analysis, 75, p.101709.
Kuma, F.K. and Yosuff, M.E., 2020. The dynamics of pecking order and agency theories on crowdfunding concept as alternate finance for start-up businesses. International Journal of Technology and Management Research, 5(1), pp.1-13.
Lee, C.J. and Andrade, E.B., 2015. Fear, excitement, and financial risk-taking. Cognition and Emotion, 29(1), pp.178-187.
Our Company – AstraZeneca (2022). Available at: https://www.astrazeneca.com/our-company.html (Accessed: 10 March 2022).
Rostamkalaei, A. and Freel, M., 2016. The cost of growth: small firms and the pricing of bank loans. Small Business Economics, 46(2), pp.255-272.
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