33Finance Strategy Our Investors Uninterrupted access to financing. In downpour and in drought. When we designed our finance strategy in 2007, debt capital was abundant and cheap. We knew at the time that the steady rain of credit wouldn't last forever. No, we're not saying we foresaw the global financial and economic crisis. But we are saying that we purposely designed a sustainable finance strategy that would ensure that we have stable sources of funding under all credit scenarios. When it's flowing freely and when it all but dries up. We need to ensure uninterrupted access to financing because we operate in a capital-intensive industry. Our assets-- wind farms, power stations, wires net- works, gas pipelines, and underground gas storage facilities--take several years to build and tie up capital for decades. E.ON's target rating of single A flat/A2-- which is a solid rating compared with those of our competitors--meets these requirements. It gives us financial flex- ibility and unrestricted access to all types of financing. It also enables us to opti- mize our capital structure at an efficient cost of capital. In 2007, we launched an unprecedented investment campaign to buy and build assets that would grow our business, ex- pand our geographic footprint, and help us ensure that tomorrow's energy supply remains secure, affordable, and climate- friendly. To go with our investment cam- paign and with our vision of becoming the world's leading power and gas com- pany, we designed a finance strategy that's attractive and reliable to share- holders and bondholders. We monitor our capital structure using a debt-to-earnings ratio called debt factor. Our debt factor is equal to our economic net debt divided by our adjusted EBITDA. Our target debt factor is 3, with a range of 2.8 to 3.3. Because our debt factor was at the upper end of this range at year- end 2008 and 2009, we're taking counter- measures. We've streamlined our invest- ment plans and launched a program to optimize our portfolio that's designed to yield more than 10 billion in cash by the end of 2010. Through asset sales under this program we've already secured about 6 billion in cash. These proactive mea- sures demonstrate that investors can trust us--in good times and difficult times. In addition, we want our shareholders to earn an attractive return on their invest- ment. Here, a key factor is our consistent dividend policy, which will continue be- yond 2009. Our target dividend payout ratio remains at 50 to 60 percent of adjusted net income. This way we offer our share- holders the opportunity for a long-term, value-enhancing investment that also offers the prospect of sustained, solid growth. Capital-intensive industry: we need to ensure uninterrupted access to financing to make investments in key energy infrastructure.