National Rural Utilities focused on meeting or exceeding rating agency expectations

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Portland, Ore., Jan. 25 - National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp. will continue to meet or exceed the expectations of the ratings agencies and is focused on mitigating risks, improving its financial-performance metrics and protecting investor interests, Steven Lilly, National Rural's chief financial officer, said Monday during a company conference call.

The company will monitor whether its actions are being well received, he said.

National Rural continues to maintain adequate sources of liquidity to address its short-term funding requirements, including access to more than $3.0 billion in bank revolving credit facilities, he said.

Lilly also noted that steps are "well under way" to renew the company's $1 billion revolving credit facility maturing in March to extend a similar amount of credit facility capacity prior to the maturity date.

National Rural's other sources of liquidity include more than $356 million in cash and cash equivalents, $575 million of funding commitments from Farmer Mac and scheduled loan principal amortization and expected prepayments of nearly $1.5 billion over the next 12 months.

In addition, National Rural maintains access to the capital markets, both with institutional and retail investors, and its member utilities continue to invest in the company's member capital securities, he said.

In the six months ended Nov. 30, National Rural's short-term debt declined by $680 million, as its loan balances declined and the company termed out debt obligations, Lilly said.

National Rural had total assets of $20.4 billion at Nov. 30, down from $21.0 billion at the end of the prior fiscal year. The decrease was primarily due to a reduction in net loans to members of $445 million and a reduction of cash and cash equivalents of $149 million, he said.

National Rural is a Herndon, Va.-based private-market lender to the nation's electric cooperative.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.