(BFM Bourse) – Recapitalizations to be planned, intervention strategy to be “updated”: in a recent report, the Court of Auditors warns of the risks weighing after the crisis on the State shareholder, which has already mobilized large resources to support the groups in whose capital it is present.
In a report published in early February, the Court of Auditors looked at the State’s management of the pandemic as a shareholder of companies, whether via the State Participation Agency (APE) or through the Caisse des dépôts (CDC) and Bpifrance.
The sages welcome the effective mobilization of the State in 2020 to support the groups in which it holds part of the capital, considering that the “powerful means” deployed “have played a key role in some large-scale operations”, such as in favor of Air France-KLM, Renault or EDF.
In total, these interventions represented “high costs” for the State, underlines the Court, estimating the budgetary impact for 2020 at around 15.5 billion euros: 2.4 billion in uncollected dividends, 9 billion in less revenue on possible disposals – in particular that of ADP – and 4 billion in capital intervention (not counting a contribution of 4 billion to the SNCF, deemed unrelated to the crisis by the Court of Auditors).
Added to this is a loss of assets estimated at approximately 11 billion euros, including 9.7 billion for the portfolio managed by the APE alone, linked to the fall in value of State holdings, concentrated in transport and energy, sectors hard hit by the crisis.
“Beyond the costs observed in 2020, the health crisis which is not over at the time of writing this report, has consequences for the prospects of the companies concerned and entails risks of future costs for the public shareholder” , however fears the Court.
Some flagships handicapped by structural problems
More than for Bpifrance or the Caisse des dépôts (CDC), the Court is especially worried about the APE (which manages public participations in large companies such as EDF, Air France-KLM or Orange). “The delayed effects of the crisis for the participations managed by the APE could be significant,” she warns.
She mentions in particular, beyond the 2020 crisis “recapitalization needs”, for certain industrial flagships affected by “more structural problems of profitability and cash flow”. This is particularly the case of Air France-KLM, which already had to transform last year an advance granted by the State into an indefinite loan, and launch a capital increase, essentially subscribed by the State again .
In her response to the Court’s report, the chairman of the airline group’s board of directors, Anne-Marie Couderc, also mentions a new capital increase in the first half of 2022, which would “allow to start repaying the aid whose group has benefited”.
The Court cites an APE study of December 2020 which assesses the need for public money to strengthen the equity of companies in difficulty between 7 and 20 billion euros, according to more or less optimistic scenarios (excluding interventions for EDF and SNCF).
“Refresh” the strategy
Already critical in a 2017 report on the policy of the State as shareholder, the Court this time clearly calls on the latter to “update” the strategy put in place in 2017, which defines that the sale of stakes by the APE must finance its shareholdings.
Because the crisis has reduced the possibilities of immediate disposals and the collection of dividends, while the needs for intervention are “potentially very high, whether it is a question of supporting public companies in their transformation or of s ‘engage further in the protection of strategic companies, the prospects for traditional revenue from the State shareholder are uncertain,’ she notes.
The Court would also like the respective roles of the APE, the CDC and Bpifrance to be clarified for a better policy of the State shareholder. A path that the government does not seem to want to take. In his response to the Court, Prime Minister Jean Castex believes that such a reflection would be “premature”, while the 2017 doctrine “showed fully satisfactory consequences” before the crisis.
(With AFP)
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