EDF plunges into the red in the first half of the year. To offset the effects of the health crisis, the electrician, who suffered a net loss of 700 million euros, announces a plan for savings and disposals. EDF wants to reduce its operating expenses by 500 million euros between 2019 and 2022 and commit to around 3 billion new disposals by 2022, according to a press release published on Thursday. Investments will also be stabilized.
"The health crisis has contained but lasting effects and to face and continue the development of the Cap 2030 strategy and of course to maintain our debt, which is high, under control, we are initiating an action plan", declared the Minister. EDF CEO, Jean-Bernard Lévy, during a conference call with the press. "These savings are sought after, they are being prepared in all sectors of the company," he said.
A savings plan called "Mimosa"
But they should not call into question the company's strategy (customer satisfaction, digitization, major nuclear and renewable projects, international development), according to him. “This strategy cannot be consistent with massive social plans and that is not what we intend to do,” added Jean-Bernard Lévy.
"We are going to regulate the group's workforce by not replacing all departures and by facilitating the mobility of employees to activities with higher potential for those who would be in activities with lower potential," he said. Explain. EDF had already confirmed in early July working on a savings plan called "Mimosa", causing concern among unions. This plan should be detailed "on September 10 during a central CSE", according to Thierry Raymond, central delegate CGT (first union), interviewed by AFP.
"It confirms our fears about a drop in the workforce in the form of unreplaced retirements and retraining, an attack on working conditions with a predictable increase in workload for endless savings," he said. he lamented.
The solution, he says, “is not to cut the payroll but to take electricity out of the speculative energy market, which has led to a drop in the price of the megawatteur having reached + minus 25 euros + during confinement: it's as if your baker paid you in addition to giving you bread! », He protests.
Nuclear decline
The net loss of 700 million euros, compared to a net profit of 2.5 billion in the first half of 2019, is largely explained by a fall in financial income due to the evolution of the book value of certain active. The gross operating surplus (EBITDA) fell modestly by 2% to 8.2 billion euros over the period despite a negative impact of 1 billion linked to the health crisis.
The Covid-19 pandemic has in fact resulted in a drop in electricity consumption of up to 20% in France with the shutdown of entire sections of the economy. It also disrupted the industrial planning of EDF, which will produce less nuclear electricity than initially planned. French nuclear production must thus reach 315 to 325 terawatt-hours (TWh) this year, forecasts EDF, while a range of 375 to 390 TWh had been announced before the crisis. This will be much less than the 379.5 TWh produced last year.
The group had also suspended its financial forecasts in April due to the uncertainty caused by the health crisis. He now sees more clearly and anticipates an Ebitda between 15.2 and 15.7 billion euros. The crisis caused by the pandemic also complicated EDF's task on the site of the new EPR reactor under construction in Flamanville (Manche), already weighed down by numerous delays and additional costs.
“All on-site construction activities were temporarily suspended between mid-March and early May, which could lead to delays and additional costs,” warns the group, which is currently targeting nuclear fuel loading at the end of 2022.
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