With a net profit of 2.4 billion euros, the railway company has confirmed the recovery committed for two years. This benefit will be used to modernize the network and delend up the company.
by Jean-Michel Normand
Long weakened by its finances, the SNCF presents accounts which confirm the improvement of its situation and result in results which it considers as “solid”. In 2022, the group said it “demonstrated its resilience in the face of crises”, bringing its turnover to 41.4 billion euros, up 19 % compared to 2021, and by clearing a net profit of 2 , 4 billion euros, against 890 million last year and a loss of 800 million in 2020. It is the best result recorded by the SNCF since the previous 2017 record.
At the end of two exercises disturbed by the COVID-19 and the strikes linked to the debates on the retirement of railway workers, the SNCF benefited from the effects of the rail reform implemented in 2020 by the State. A device that has programmed a resumption of the company’s debt up to 35 billion euros.
As such, the public authorities finished, in 2022, this clearance operation – debt now reached 24.4 billion euros, against 60.2 billion in 2019 -, taking charge of ten Last billion euros planned. One less weight in the accounts of the operator who, in return, is committed to a given-delivery which requires him to find new means to finance his investments.
“Prepare the future “
In accordance with its commitments, the SNCF for the first time released, in 2022, a positive cash flow (1.3 billion euros). A result which reflects the good performance of the income of the different components of the group. SNCF Travelers strongly revived its activity (17.3 billion, up 26.7 %) thanks to the resumption of TGV traffic, up 10 %. Long deficit, freight is beneficiary (208 million euros) for the second year in a row.
The SNCF entity can also count on the contribution of its subsidiaries. In particular Geodis (logistics and road transport), which completed the financial year with an activity up 19 % and a “historic” result of 1.1 billion euros, and Keolis (public transport networks), which contributes results up to 590 million euros. The group, which achieves 40 % of its turnover abroad, indicates that it has recruited, last year, more than 14,300 new employees in France on an indefinite contract.
The margins released by these results, recalled Jean-Pierre Farandou, the CEO of the SNCF, “will be used 100 % to prepare for the future, funding [the] development, by investing in the national rail network and by reducing the weight of the debt “.
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