No jokes at SNCF to announce the results for 2023. Jean-Pierre Farandou, its CEO, is keeping a low profile, despite a third profitable year, at 1.3 billion euros, and a Rugby World Cup running smoothly on the transport plan. The one who describes himself as a “tireless in social dialogue” was unable to do anything about the strike against pension reform: it caused the company to lose 350 million euros.
And now he is faced with an impossible negotiation with the TGV crew chiefs, who are still threatening to walk off the job during the spring holidays. A situation all the more uncomfortable for him as he is in an ejection seat: the extension of his mandate, which expires in May, has still not been ratified by the President of the Republic.
However, everyone expected him to remain in charge during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, until the summer of his 68th birthday, in 2025. On this date, the statutes of the SNCF and the limit of age will force him to hand over. Today, nothing is decided. Jean-Pierre Farandou met the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, but nothing leaked from their exchange. “I would love to continue, but it’s not up to me”confides the man who joined the group in 1981 and took charge in November 2019.
If these results were to be the last, he would not have to be ashamed of his presidency. The French “plebiscite the train”recalls Laurent Trevisani, the financial director, delighted: record number of travelers in the Intercités, TGVs saturated to the point of missing sales, including during the week, business travelers returning, increased use of regional trains… SNCF Voyageurs is the big winner from opening up to competition: it won four calls for tender out of five and signed over-the-counter contracts with twelve regions.
As for the arrival of the Italian company Trenitalia or the Spanish Renfe on the high-speed lines, it has not affected the development of the historic company, which is still progressing on the Paris-Lyon route and has never had as many passengers on its very profitable international routes.
Slowing growth
Certainly, the profit was much higher last year: 2.4 billion euros. But Jean-Pierre Farandou recalls that it was inflated by the sale of its locomotive rental subsidiary Akiem (700 million euros). One of the engines of SNCF, its logistics subsidiary Geodis, has also seized up due to the slowdown in growth. Despite everything, it completed the acquisition of Trans-O-Flex, the German medical logistics specialist.
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