RENFE plans for profit in 2017
2017-05-15 14:59:00At group level, RENFE is budgeting for total income of €3∙41bn in 2017, up 5% on the year before. Amortisation costs are expected to remain stable at €377m and finance costs are forecast to fall by 25% to €56m, well below the European sector average according to RENFE. In contrast, track access charges are expected to rise by 5∙7% to €647m due to more services being operated, which combined with an increase in electricity and fuel prices will see energy costs rising by 7% to €310m.
RENFE is planning capital spending of €461m during 2017, principally on rolling stock and including refurbishment programmes, accessibility improvements and the first payments for the 15 high speed trainsets ordered from Talgo for €786·5m in November 2016. A further €80m is to be spent on accessibility improvements at suburban stations as well as on workshops and equipment.
With traffic of 481 million passenger-journeys forecast for 2017, up by 10 million on the year before, RENFE’s passenger business is expected to record a profit of €45·4m before tax, up 15∙3% on the year before. The freight business is expected to make a loss of €1∙8m, ‘practically breaking even’ according to RENFE and a marked improvement on the pre-tax loss of €60m recorded in 2016. Freight traffic is forecast to grow by 4∙3% in 2017 to reach 19∙1 million tonnes.
RENFE’s rolling stock maintenance and assembly business is forecasting a loss of €1m on EBITDA of €22∙5m in 2017. Focusing on the freight market, the rolling stock leasing business is expecting to make a profit of €1·6m on EBITDA of €14m.