15 Cash and borrowings

15.1 Net debt

Net debt comprises borrowings and credit balances on currency swaps less cash and cash equivalents.

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Borrowings are repayable as follows:

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Group financial statements continued

Notes to the Group accounts continued

15 Cash and borrowings continued

15.2 Liquidity risk exposures

The Group has established a set of policies to manage funding and currency risks. The Group only uses derivative financial instruments to manage the financial risks associated with underlying business activities and their financing. Liquidity risk is the risk that the Group is not able to meet its obligations. The Group’s policy is to ensure that there are sufficient facilities in place to meet funding requirements. The Group manages and monitors liquidity risk through preparation and review of short and medium-term cash forecasts, having regard to the maturities of investments and borrowing facilities. The Group has available committed facilities of $4.1bn (2024: $4.1bn).

In 2025, the Group repurchased $100 million of its $1.0 billion 2.032% USD corporate bond to manage the maturity profile of the Group’s borrowings. The repurchase consideration amounted to $90m and resulted in a gain of $10m in Other finance costs. During 2024, the Group issued two corporate bonds of $350m and $650m (before expenses and underwriting discounts) of notes bearing an interest rate of 5.15% and 5.40% repayable in 2027 and 2034. In 2024, the Group repaid $405m of private placement debt.

The interest payable on borrowings under committed facilities is either at fixed or floating rates. Euro floating rates are typically based on EURIBOR and US Dollar rates are typically based on the Term Secured Overnight Financing Rate (Term SOFR). The Company is subject to financial covenants under its private placement agreements. The principal covenant on the private placement debt is a leverage ratio of <3.5 which is measured on a rolling 12-month basis at half year and year end using net debt excluding lease liabilities as set out in note 15.1. The financial covenants are tested at the end of each half year for the 12 months ending on the last day of the testing period. As of 31 December 2025, the Company was in compliance with these covenants. The facilities are also subject to customary events of default, none of which are currently anticipated to occur. As the measure included in the financial covenants represents net debt excluding lease liabilities, the Group also presents the net debt position to provide a complete and comprehensive view of its financial position.

The Group’s $1.0 billion Revolving Credit Facility (“RCF”) maturity date was extended to 2030 during the year.

The Group’s committed facilities at 31 December 2025 and at 31 December 2024 are:

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15 Cash and borrowings continued

15.3 Year end financial liabilities by contractual maturity

The table below analyses the Group’s year end financial liabilities by contractual maturity date, including contractual interest payments and excluding the impact of netting arrangements:

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1 Refer to note 16.1 for details of foreign exchange risk management and the currencies being hedged.

The amounts in the tables above are undiscounted cash flows, which differ from the amounts included in the balance sheet where the underlying cash flows have been discounted.

15.4 Liquidity and capital resources

The Group’s policy is to ensure that it has sufficient funding and facilities to meet foreseeable borrowing requirements.

At 31 December 2025, the Group held $553m (2024: $617m, 2023: $300m) in cash and cash equivalents net of bank overdrafts. The Group had committed facilities available of $4.1bn (2024: $4.1bn) at 31 December 2025 of which $3.1bn (2024: $3.1bn) was drawn. The $1bn (2024: $1bn) undrawn amount relates to the RCF.

The Group has sufficient liquidity to support all known or expected business requirements for 2026 such as dividend payments, acquisitions and disposals of businesses, capital expenditure, working capital fluctuations and trading activity.