Jean-Pierre Farandou tries to reassure: even if the SNCF seems in its balance sheet to go badly, the concern should not be appropriate. The public company will indeed still be in the red this year but should be able to do without further state aid or additional disposals, believes its CEO in an interview with Figaro to be released this Tuesday.
“I fear that we are still in losses this year because of the third confinement” in the spring, indicates Jean-Pierre Farandou. But, “at this point, I’m not asking the state for help. We are going to borrow the equivalent of our deficit to meet current expenses ”.
Geodis “helped cushion the effect of the crisis”
The public group had directly benefited from a recapitalization of 4 billion euros from the State last year, intended for the network. He lost another 780 million euros in the first half of 2021, after losing 3 billion in 2020, but “is in a rebound situation”.
“Our logistician Geodis is one of the winners of the health crisis”. “When the TGV’s lung is a little cold, the logistics lung works well and that makes the group breathe. This enabled us to cushion the effect of the crisis, ”remarks Jean-Pierre Farandou. “To reduce our debt, we sold Ermewa, a freight wagon lessor, which was not a strategic asset, very well,” he also notes. This sale, finalized on October 22, will result in a net debt reduction of around 3.2 billion euros for SNCF.
Towards fewer employees
The president of the SNCF also confirms the objective of financial balance in 2022, agreed with the State during the railway reform of 2018. “To achieve this, we are working to develop turnover. We will not be very far from returning in 2022 to the level before the Covid ”, he assures us. “And we are reducing our costs with savings plans”. “We have also postponed certain investments in rolling stock or IT.” SNCF will also reduce the number of employees from “1.5% to 2% by not replacing all retirements”.
Finally, if he recognizes that the arrival of competition is “a shock”, Jean-Pierre Farandou considers that his main opponent is “the road”, the objective being to double the share of rail in ten years. According to him, SNCF “will carry more passengers” if the market grows, even if it loses market share.