The situation is such that the French car manufacturer is today unable to forecast a financial result for this year. In the meantime, Renault already has the figures for the first half of 2020. And they are catastrophic, with the heaviest net loss in its history, at 7.3 billion euros, he announced on Thursday.
The group, already in difficulty before the coronavirus pandemic, announced at the end of May 15,000 job cuts worldwide (including 4,600 in France). "The situation is unprecedented, it is not without appeal," tried to reassure the new general manager, Luca de Meo, who took office at the beginning of the month. "I have every confidence in the group's ability to bounce back," he added, quoted in the press release sent by Renault. "The health crisis we are currently experiencing has had a strong impact on the group's results for the first half of the year and has been added to our pre-existing difficulties," explained Deputy Managing Director Clotilde Delbos for her part.
In contrast with PSA
This historic loss is mainly explained by the contribution of the car manufacturer Nissan, in which Renault owns 43% of the capital. This participation penalized the diamond group to the tune of 4.8 billion euros. Turnover plunged 34.3% over the first six months of the year, to 18.4 billion euros. The operating margin fell sharply in the red, at -1.2 billion euros. Renault estimates the negative impact of the health crisis at 1.8 billion. This margin was positive at 1.7 billion euros in the first half of 2019. Renault (which also includes the brands Dacia, Lada, Alpine and Samsung Motors) suffers in particular from production overcapacity at the global level. He was particularly struck by the fall in the market linked to the health crisis. The manufacturer has announced asset write-downs for 445 million euros, in order to take into account "revised volume assumptions" "for certain vehicles", as well as provisions for restructuring charges for 166 million euros. euros “mainly linked to the early departure plan in France”.
In addition, the failure of the group's strategy in China is also recorded in the accounts with 153 million euros in capital losses on the sale in this country, a charge linked to the sale of Renault's shares in its joint subsidiary with Dongfeng Motor Corporation. Renault had announced that it was abandoning the sale of combustion-powered cars in China to focus on utility and electric vehicles.
These figures contrast with those of French rival PSA (Peugeot, Citroën), which managed to make money in the first half despite the crisis, with a net profit of 595 million euros.
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