The trains run fast
The group Italian State Railways (FS) closes 2022 with a Net income for the year, equal to 202 million euros, a clear recovery compared to the economic-financial impacts of the health emergency generated in the two previous years. “Despite the serious and negative evolution of the conflict in Ukraine, which continues to represent a factor of strong socio-political and economic-financial instability at not only European level, with the consequent significant critical issues in terms of the costs of materials and commodities” they explained by the FS.
This was announced by FS after the BoD, chaired by Nicoletta Giadrossi, today examined and approved the Company’s draft Annual Financial Report, which also includes the Group’s consolidated financial statements as at 31 December 2022.
Luigi Ferraris, Chief Executive Officer of the FS Groupcommented as follows: “The positive results achieved in 2022 confirm the key role of the FS Group in providing the country with an efficient and integrated infrastructure, mobility and freight logistics system, as well as in contributing to making our cities more sustainable”.
Furthermore, “the 12% growth in revenues in one year is the result of the Group’s operational capacity which made it possible to take advantage of the substantial increase in the demand for mobility of people which saw the number of Frecce travelers double compared to 2021. All economic indicators are up, driven by ordinary management,” he added.
“EBITDA is improving by over 1.1 billion euros, taking into account the drastic reduction in 2022 compared to 2021 for around 800 million euros in Covid refreshments. The Group closes with a +5% net profit. The results achieved and the activities undertaken constitute a solid basis for completing further objectives related to the PNRRthe other strategic works for the country and encourage the development of a new integrated mobility” he concluded.
All margins for the year show positive and growing balances
Operating revenues of the Group rise to 13.7 billion euros, with an overall increase of 1.4 billion euros (+12%), compared to 2021. The merit is the significant recovery in demand volumes for rail transport services and road. The increase in Revenues is accompanied by the growth of Gross Operating Margin (EBITDA) of 324 million euros, which reaches 2.2 billion euros compared to the 1.9 billion euros of the previous year (+17%). In fact, the Group has demonstrated its great ability to react on the front of the recovery of operating performance in the various businesses. Also considering that the contribution of Covid-19 refreshments to EBITDA was only 172 million euros in 2022 compared to 958 million euros in 2021.
L’EBIT stands at a positive value of 262 million euros (with the EBIT Margin going from 1.6% to 1.9%), up by +36% (equal to +69 million euros) vs 2021, or +112% vs 2021 (equal to +855 million euros) net of the Covid refreshments.
On the front of investmentsan overall level of expenditure for technical investments of 11.3 billion euro was managed in 2022, with particular reference to the development and renewal of the infrastructure, transport and logistics sectors.
The growth compared to 2021, excluding the financial advances component from the comparison, is equal to over 9%, thus contributing to the strengthening of the country (98% of investments are in the national territory and over 9 billion euros in railway and road infrastructures, among which we note, in particular, the works on the railway network of the Terzo Valico dei Giovi and Nuovo Valico del Brennero and the Brescia-Verona-Vicenza, Naples-Bari and Turin-Lyon lines).
The FS Italiane Group maintains a high level of equity and financial solidity
Equity at the end of 2022 amounted to approximately €41.9 billion. There Net Financial Position (NFP), with a net debt of 7.9 billion euros, recorded a decrease of 1 billion euros compared to 31 December 2021, with a NFP/Equity ratio of approximately 0.2 substantially unchanged compared to the previous year .
The judgments of the rating agencies also give full recognition of the capital and financial reliability of the Group, with “BBB” from Standard & Poor’s which confirmed at the beginning of August 2022 own judgment with “stable” outlook and with Fitch which confirmed its “BBB” rating in November, with a “stable” outlook.
In particular, Fitch has raised one of the scores assigned to FS from “moderate” to “strong”based on the “government-related entity rating criteria” methodology, thanks to the improvement in the Group’s assessment in relation to the “Socio-Political Implications of Default”, by virtue of the central role that FS plays for infrastructural growth and the green transition of the country.
(Ticker)