Heineken N.V. today announced that it has been assigned solid investment grade credit ratings by the world’s two leading credit agencies, Moody’s Investor Service and Standard & Poor’s. Both long-term credit ratings, Baa1 and BBB+, respectively, have ‘stable’ outlooks and reflect HEINEKEN’s excellent geographic spread of profits and cash flows, its leading positions in beer markets across the world and its well-balanced growth strategy.

The public credit ratings announced today, the first in the company’s almost 150-year history, provide HEINEKEN with continuous access to a wide range of funding sources and will facilitate and further enhance its already successful track record in the financial markets. These ratings will be assigned to HEINEKEN’s European Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme that will be published on the website of the Luxembourg Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), once the annual update has been completed.

Ren? Hooft Graafland, HEINEKEN Executive Board member and CFO, commented “the award of these credit ratings underlines our commitment to transparency and diversification of our funding sources.”

“The credit rating agencies have recognised the strength of Heineken® and our other brands, our geographic diversity, our leading profitable market positions and strong cash flow generation. These have all been instrumental in securing these solid investment grade ratings today. In addition, our sound financial policies and conservative approach towards managing liquidity and funding continue to support a strong capital structure in the long-term,” Hooft Graafland concluded.