32. Financial risk management

See “Risk factors” for additional details on general risk factors.

Financial risk factors

Our financial risks are managed centrally. Our finance department coordinates the access to national and international financial markets and considers and manages continuously the financial risks concerning our activities. These relate to the financial markets risk, credit risk, liquidity risk and currency risk. There are no other important risks, such as interest rate risk on borrowings, because we have nearly no financial debt and have a strong cash position. We do not buy or trade financial instruments for speculative purposes.

Categories of financial assets and liabilities:

Available-for-sale financial assets

On 15 July 2016, we invested €2.75 million in a French biopharmaceutical company developing new therapeutics for severe orphan and common neurological diseases, listed on Euronext. Galapagos has no restrictions on the sale of this equity investment and the asset is not pledged under any Galapagos’ liabilities. This investment is classified as available-for-sale equity investment which qualifies for level 1 fair value measurement based upon the closing price of such securities on Euronext at each reporting date.

The market price of those shares might face fluctuations and might be affected by a variety of factors, such as the global economic situation, the business development of competitors, sector mergers and acquisitions; it is difficult to mitigate this risk.

Liquidity risk

Our consolidated balance sheet shows an amount of €211.4 million as accumulated losses on 31 December 2017. Our cash and cash equivalents amounted to €1,151.2 million on 31 December 2017. Cash used in operating activities amounted to €147.0 million for the year ended 31 December 2017.  Management forecasts our liquidity requirements to ensure that we have sufficient cash to meet operational needs. Based upon our current expected level of operating expenditures and our existing cash and cash equivalents, we believe that we will be able to fund our operating expenses and capital expenditure requirements at least for the next two to three years. We have no credit lines. Such forecasting is based on realistic assumptions with regards to milestone and upfront payments to be received, taking into account our past track record, including the assumption that not all new projects that are being planned will be realized.

Credit risk

The term “credit risk” refers to the risk that counterparty will default on its contractual obligations resulting in financial loss for us.

The trade receivables consist of a limited amount of creditworthy customers, many of which are large pharmaceutical companies, spread over different geographical areas. To limit the risk of financial losses, we have developed a policy of only dealing with creditworthy counterparties.

We grant credit to our clients in the framework of our normal business activities. Usually, we require no pledge or other collateral to cover the amounts due. Management continuously evaluates the client portfolio for creditworthiness. All receivables are considered collectable, except for these for which a provision for doubtful debtors has been established.

Our cash and cash equivalents are invested primarily in saving and deposit accounts. For banks and financial institutions, only independently rated parties with a minimum rating of ‘A’ are accepted at the beginning of the term.

Interest rate risk

The only variable interest-bearing financial instruments are cash and cash equivalents. Changes in interest rates may cause variations in interest income and expenses resulting from short term interest-bearing assets. Management does not expect the short term interest rates to decrease significantly in the immediate foreseeable future, which limits the interest exposure on our cash and cash equivalents.

Effect of interest rate fluctuation

A 100 basis points increase in interest rates at balance sheet date would have increased profit and loss, and equity, by approximately €11.5 million (2016: €10 million); a 100 basis points decrease in interest rates would have decreased profit and loss, and equity, by approximately €11.5 million (2016: €10 million).

Foreign exchange risk

We are exposed to foreign exchange risk arising from various currency exposures. Our functional currency is euro, but we receive payments from our main collaboration partners AbbVie and Gilead in U.S. dollars and acquire some consumables and materials in U.S. dollars, Swiss francs, GB pounds and Croatian kuna.

To limit this risk, we attempt to align incoming and outgoing cash flows in currencies other than EUR. In addition, contracts closed by our different entities are mainly in the functional currencies of that entity, except for the alliance agreements signed with AbbVie and Gilead for which payments are denominated in U.S. dollars.

In order to further reduce this risk, we implemented a netting system in the course of 2012, which restrains intra-group payments between entities with a different functional currency.

The exchange rate risk in case of a 10% change in the exchange rate amounts to:

The exchange rate risk on the U.S. dollar is primarily related to our cash and cash equivalents held in U.S. dollars.

Capital risk factors

We manage our capital to safeguard that we will be able to continue as a going concern. At the same time, we want to ensure the return to our shareholders through the results from our research and development activities.

Our capital structure consists of cash at bank and in hand and cash equivalents, financial debt (which currently we barely have: as of 31 December 2017, we have no financial debt other than finance leases), and equity attributed to the holders of our equity instruments, such as capital, reserves and results carried forward, as mentioned in the consolidated statement of changes in equity.

We manage our capital structure and make the necessary adjustments in the light of changes of economic circumstances, the risk characteristics of underlying assets and the projected cash needs of the current research and development activities.

The adequacy of the capital structure will depend on many factors, including scientific progress in the research and development programs, the magnitude of those programs, the commitments to existing and new clinical CROs, the ability to establish new alliance or collaboration agreements, the capital expenditures, market developments and any future acquisition.

Neither Galapagos NV nor any of its subsidiaries are subject to any externally imposed capital requirements, other than those imposed by generally applicable company law requirements.