Despite an unprecedented shock for large French companies, because of the coronavirus epidemic, the future prospects are not so bleak.

Tens of billions of euros in soaring profits: we are starting to measure the impact of the coronavirus crisis on large French companies.

The shock is unprecedented.

It's very simple, in the first half of the year, the famous first wave of the virus wiped out the profits of CAC 40 companies. The 40 largest French companies collectively made no profit over the first six months of the year .

While at cruising speed, they garnered around forty billion euros in profits over one semester.

The shock is therefore considerable and deeper than during the financial crisis of 2008: at the time, the CAC 40 groups had, despite the crisis, generated a profit of 6 billion euros.

And profits to zero, we cannot repeat it enough, that means less capacity to invest and therefore to prepare for the future.

And incidentally less tax revenue for the State.

>>

Find all the economic editorials in replay and podcast here

Companies, pillars of our economy, not all in the same boat

There are some who are doing well, for example the pharmaceutical group Sanofi.

This is also the case for companies in the technological sector such as Dassault Systèmes, one of the best performances of the entire CAC 40, or even a lesser-known company which has just entered the CAC 40, Worldline, specializing in payments. electronic.

In the more traditional retail sector, a group like Carrefour is not doing badly with a break-even result over the half-year.

But of course, all this contrasts with the deep difficulties of Renault or Airbus, which are paying extremely dearly for the Covid-19 crisis.

And whose activity will remain permanently lower than it was before the emergence of the virus.

Solid balance sheets

It is very important: their financial situation remains healthy.

Their records are solid.

Of course, they increased their debt to get through this bad patch.

But according to calculations by the audit firm EY, their indebtedness remains lower than it was after the 2008 crisis. And if they have reduced their investments, it is more often, according to EY, postponements than of cancellations.

This means that our large companies have maintained strong rebound capacities.

In the crisis we are going through, this is an encouraging message.