Liquidity and sources of funds

As of the balance sheet date, the Group (excluding Postbank) had cash and cash equivalents in the amount of €1,350 million (previous year: €1,339 million) at its disposal. A large portion of this is accounted for by subsidiaries in countries where foreign exchange transactions are unrestricted. In 2008, the main sources of non-recurring cash inflows related to the sale of real estate to US investor Lone Star (€942 million) and the repayment received in the state aid proceedings (€1,067 million). These cash inflows were offset by non-recurring cash outflows of €1 billion for our participation in the capital increase at Deutsche Postbank AG.

The financial liabilities reported in our balance sheet break down as follows:

The largest single items under financial liabilities are the two listed bonds of Deutsche Post Finance B. V. Also of significance are the two municipal bonds taken out to fund investments at the airports in Wilmington, Delaware, and Cincinnati, Ohio, in the US, project financing received from the European Investment Bank for mail sorting centres in Germany and an IT centre in the Czech Republic. Further information on the reported financial liabilities is contained in the Notes. 

In addition to borrowings, operating leases are an important source of funding for the Group. We use operating leases to finance real estate as well as aircraft, vehicle fleets and IT equipment, as shown in the following table:

The main driver for the increase in operating lease obligations in 2008 was the sale and leaseback agreements entered into for portions of the real estate portfolio sold to Lone Star. The sale was part of our Roadmap to Value capital markets programme aimed at cash generation, amongst other things. 

One major funding initiative in 2008 was the commercial paper programme we launched in January, which provided us with short-term financing and supplemented our bilateral credit lines. The average drawdown on the facility was around €160 million in the year under review. 

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