Managing our financial risks

This section explains the Group's approach to the management of financial risk.

treasury policy

The Group holds financial instruments for two principal purposes: to finance its operations and to manage the interest rate and currency risks arising from its operations and its sources of finance. The Group finances its operations by a mixture of cash flows from operations, short-term borrowings from banks and commercial paper markets, and longer-term loans from banks and capital markets. The Group borrows principally in US dollars, euros and sterling, at both floating and fixed rates of interest, using derivatives, where appropriate, to generate the desired effective currency profile and interest rate basis. The derivatives used for this purpose are principally interest rate swaps, interest rate caps and collars, currency swaps and forward foreign exchange contracts. The main risks arising from the Group's financial instruments are interest rate risk, liquidity and refinancing risk, counterparty risk and foreign currency risk. These risks are managed by the chief financial officer under policies approved by the Board which are summarised below. These policies have remained unchanged, except as disclosed, since the beginning of 2002. A treasury committee of the board receives reports on the Group's treasury activities, policies and procedures, which are reviewed periodically by a group of external professional advisers. The treasury department is not a profit centre and its activities are subject to internal audit.

interest rate risk

The Group's exposure to interest rate fluctuations on its borrowings is managed by borrowing on a fixed rate basis and by entering into interest rate swaps, interest rate caps and forward rate agreements. Since October 2002 the Group's policy objective has been to set a target proportion of its forecast borrowings (taken at the year end, with cash netted against floating rate debt) to be hedged (i.e. fixed or capped) over the next four years of 40% to 65%. At the end of 2002 that ratio was 56%. On that basis, a 1% change in the Group's variable rate US dollar, euro and sterling interest rates have a £6m effect on profit before tax. The disposal of Pearson's interest in RTL has resulted in a significant reduction in floating rate debt. We have cancelled a number of swap contracts in order to bring the balance of fixed and floating rate debt back within our policy parameters.

liquidity and refinancing risk

The Group's objective is to procure continuity of funding at a reasonable cost. To do this it seeks to arrange committed funding for a variety of maturities from a diversity of sources. The Group's policy objective has been that the weighted average maturity of its core gross borrowings (treating short-term advances as having the final maturity of the facilities available to refinance them) should be between three and ten years. Since January 2002, reflecting the impact of the RTL disposal, the Group's policy for non-bank sources has continued to be they should provide at least £250m of core gross borrowings, but for bank sources no such minimum is required (previously £250m). At the end of 2002 the average maturity of gross borrowings was 4.8 years and non-banks provided £1,790m (90%) of them (down from 5.3 years and up from 75% respectively at the beginning of the year). The proceeds of the RTL sale were used to repay debt, including part of the Group's syndicated bank facility, and to provide seasonal working capital. The Group believes that ready access to different funding markets also helps to reduce its liquidity risk, and that published credit ratings and published financial policies improve such access. The Group manages the amount of its net debt, and the level of its net interest cover, principally by the use of a target range for its interest cover ratio. All of the Group's credit ratings remained unchanged during the year. The long-term ratings are Baa1 from Moody's and BBB+ from Standard & Poor's, and the short-term ratings are P2 and A2 respectively. The Group continues to operate on the basis that the Board will take such action as is necessary to support and protect its current credit ratings. The Group also maintains undrawn committed borrowing facilities. At the end of 2002 these amounted to £1,059m, and their weighted average maturity was 2.5 years.

counterparty risk

The Group's risk of loss on deposits or derivative contracts with individual banks is managed in part through the use of counterparty limits. These limits, which take published credit limits (among other things) into account, are approved by the chief financial officer. In addition, for certain longer dated higher value derivative contracts the Group has entered into mark to market agreements whose effect is to reduce significantly the counterparty risk of the relevant transactions.

currency risk

Although the Group is based in the UK, it has a significant investment in overseas operations. The most significant currency for the Group is the US dollar, followed by the euro and sterling. The Group's policy during the year on routine transactional conversions between currencies (for example, the collection of receivables, and the settlement of payables or interest) remained that these should be effected at the relevant spot exchange rate. As in previous years, no unremitted profits were hedged with foreign exchange contracts. The Group's policy is to align approximately the currency composition of its core borrowings in US dollars, euros and sterling with the split between those currencies of its forecast operating profit. This policy aims to dampen the impact of changes in foreign exchange rates on consolidated interest cover and earnings. Long-term core borrowing is limited to these three major currencies. However, the Group still borrows small amounts in other currencies, typically for seasonal working capital needs. At the year end the split of aggregate net borrowings in its three core currencies was US dollar 72%, euro 13% and sterling 15%.