A year ago, Tesco, the UK supermarket giant, were early to see problems ahead in consumer markets. Now, they see problems developing for corporate lending. Last week, Tesco paid €100m more than expected when borrowing €3bn. But Nick Mourtant, group Treasurer, still thought it a good deal.
He said ‘the company wanted to raise as much as possible while it could, and paid a premium to secure the money quickly’. He added that ‘relying on short-term funding does not feel comfortable in the current market conditions’. Shrewd chemical company CFOs will no doubt be following Tesco’s lead as fast as possible.