Financial result

The financial result decreased by €337 million to – €1,475 million. The decline is primarily attributable to “Other financial result,“ which deteriorated markedly, dropping by €691 million to –€579 million. Contributing factors included the write-down of securities and losses from the sale of securities. These led to additional charges of €110 million and €250 million compared with 2007, reflecting the ramifications of the financial crisis. In the previous year, the “Other financial result” was unusually high, partially due to income from the reduction of our interest in Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (€142 million). Furthermore, we had benefited from a one-off effect stemming from the externalization of our pension obligations: At the end of March 2007, we had transferred €7.9 billion in funds earmarked to finance pension commitments to a trustee (RWE Pensionstreuhand e.V.) within the scope of a contractual trust arrangement (CTA) and netted them against provisions for pensions. The deconsolidation of special funds implemented in this context led to €155 million in one-off income. The negative development witnessed in the “Other financial result” is contrasted by a €321 million improvement in net interest. One factor that came to play here was that our average net financial debt over the course of fiscal 2008 was lower than in 2007. The interest accretion to non-current provisions also displayed positive development. It was down by €33 million. This was primarily due to the decline in provisions for pensions in connection with the CTA.