Nestlé clamps down on interest rate risk

Nestlé tightened up its defences against rising interest rates in 2017 by hedging billions of newly-issued debt with derivatives.

Taking into account the use of these instruments, the proportion of Nestle’s outstanding debt subject to fixed rates for longer than one year stood at 59% in 2017, up from 45% in 2016. It’s the highest proportion since Nestlé started publishing the data in 2014.

As a result of its efforts to maximise the amount of outstanding debt subject to fixed rates, Nestlé has