Annual Reports - RTÃ
Annual Reports - RTÃ
Annual Reports - RTÃ
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ANNUAL REPORT & GROUP FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 2007<br />
21 Financial instruments (Group and RTÉ)<br />
(a) Financial risk management<br />
The Group has exposure to the following risks from its use of financial instruments:<br />
• credit risk<br />
• liquidity risk<br />
• market risk<br />
This note presents information about the Group’s exposure to each of the above risks and the Group’s objectives, policies and<br />
processes for measuring and managing risk.<br />
The RTÉ Authority has overall responsibility for the establishment and oversight of the Group’s risk management framework and has<br />
approved policies for the main areas of financial risk faced by the Group.<br />
Group Treasury is responsible for managing all treasury activities, in accordance with the treasury policies, including cash management,<br />
foreign exchange risk and counterparty credit risk.<br />
Credit risk<br />
Credit risk is the risk of financial loss to the Group if a customer or counterparty to a financial instrument fails to meet its contractual<br />
obligations, and arises principally from the Group’s receivables from customers and deposit investments.<br />
Given the nature of the advertising and other markets within which RTÉ operates, RTÉ had significant exposures to individual<br />
advertising agencies and other customers throughout the year. RTÉ’s policy is to assign limits to the aggregate amount of exposure to<br />
each individual customer. These exposures and the related limits are subject to ongoing review and monitoring.<br />
As significant cash balances are held and invested on a short-term basis, RTÉ is exposed to credit risk on amounts due from the<br />
institutions with which it holds its bank accounts and transacts cash investment and derivative business. RTÉ’s policy is to limit its<br />
exposure to each financial institution, primarily depending on its credit rating.<br />
Liquidity risk<br />
Liquidity risk is the risk that the Group will not be able to meet its financial obligations as they fall due. RTÉ’s approach to managing<br />
liquidity is to ensure, as far as possible, that it will always have sufficient liquidity to meet its financial liabilities when due, under both<br />
normal and stressed conditions, without incurring unacceptable losses or risking damage to the Group’s reputation.<br />
The Group’s policy is to invest excess cash, primarily term deposit accounts, spread over a number of institutions.<br />
Market risk<br />
Market risk is the risk that changes in market prices, such as foreign exchange rates or interest rates, will affect the Group’s income<br />
or the value of its holdings of financial instruments. The objective of market risk management is to manage and control market risk<br />
exposures within acceptable parameters, while optimising the return.<br />
The majority of RTÉ’s business is transacted in Ireland. Consequently, operating and investing cash flows are substantially denominated<br />
in Euro. Foreign currency exposures arise primarily from payments for acquired programmes and sports rights in US dollar and Sterling.<br />
RTÉ’s policy is to have the majority of its committed principal foreign currency exposures commercially hedged at the beginning of<br />
each financial year by entering into US dollar and Sterling forward contracts. All forward contracts have a maturity date of less than<br />
12 months from the balance sheet date.<br />
RTÉ decides whether to apply hedge accounting to its derivative financial instruments on a transaction by transaction basis. Hedge<br />
accounting has not been applied to any of the Group’s derivative financial instruments at 31 December 2007 or 31 December 2006.<br />
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