FRANKFURT, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Volkswagen is considering whether its financial services business could refinance itself at more affordable rates were it to issue bonds guaranteed by the German state.
"It's an issue of possibly optimising our refinancing costs," a spokesman for VW Financial Services said on Monday.
It refinances roughly a third of its business by issuing corporate bonds. Another 18 percent comes from bank deposits while a further 14 percent stemmed from asset-backed securities (ABS).
Mirroring the debt ratings of its parent Volkswagen, VW Financial Services AG is classified "A-" with a stable outlook by Standard & Poor's, while Moody's has it at the equivalent "A3" rating but with a positive outlook.
Due to the greater independence guaranteed by its banking license, Volkswagen Bank GmbH is rated one notch higher than the rest of the group.
According to VW's quarterly results, its overall financial services division -- including its U.S. units that are not a part of VW Financial Services AG -- posted a stable 9-month operating profit at 751 million euros ($968.5 million).
Net debt at the division widened to 60.2 billion euros at the end of September from 52.4 billion at the start of 2008 due to increased business volume and the initial consolidation of Swedish majority-owned truckmaker Scania.
BMW's management said last week it had not yet reached a final decision on whether or not to make use of state guarantees for its financing business.
Berlin has drawn up a 500 billion euro package that aims to stabilise the financial sector by offering borrowing guarantees or capital injections.
(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner; Editing by Sharon Lindores) ($1=.7754 Euro) Keywords: VOLKSWAGEN/FINANCING

(christiaan.hetzner@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: christiaan.hetzner.reuters.com@reuters.net; +49 69 7565 1249)

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