With ratings in the A and A2 category respectively Henkel has investment grade credit ratings. Henkel is rated as follows (last modification: August 2007):

November 14, 2008 - As a result of the successful divestiture of Henkel’s full stake (72.7 million shares) in Ecolab Inc., St. Paul/Minnesota, USA, and the intended use of the proceeds to re-duce net debt, the rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s affirmed Henkel’s credit ratings and outlook.

An overview about the credit rating categories from Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s can be found here.

A more current and market-based assessment of Henkel's credit-worthiness is the credit margin of the Henkel 2013 bond.

This is the risk premium that an investor demands in addition to the interest rate of a risk free investment. The credit margin as shown in the following chart is calculated by deducting the interbank yield for interest rate swaps of the same maturity from the yield of the Henkel 2013 bond. The lower the credit margin is, the better the capital market judges the credit-worthiness of Henkel.