The 37 CAC 40 groups which have already released their half-year results, taken as a whole, have accumulated a net loss of 400 million euros in the first half of the year, according to a count made by AFP. Last year, they had generated nearly 44 billion euros in net profits over the same period. In other words, all of their profits have skyrocketed due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a provisional tally.
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Historical deterioration in results
These groups recorded a cumulative turnover of more than 535 billion euros during the period, down 17.7%. The coronavirus pandemic, which brought the global economy to a halt, has left its mark in all sectors of activity. " We have never experienced such a sharp deterioration in results, " observes AFP Daniel Larrouturou, equity manager at Dôm Finance. " Despite some spectacular falls, we still notice the resilience of a large number of CAC 40 companies in this context of unprecedented crisis ," he nevertheless qualifies.
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The oil giant Total, used to prancing at the top of the ranking with several billion in profits, finds itself at the bottom of the table, with a loss of 8.4 billion dollars (about 7.6 billion euros), linked to heavy asset write-downs and falling crude prices. The French automaker Renault (loss of 7.3 billion euros) and the French heavyweight of shopping centers URW (3.7 billion euros in losses) also affected the accounts.
Significant differences between companies in the same sector
For now, 13 CAC 40 groups from different sectors have plunged more or less sharply into the red during the semester. " There are sectors that have suffered more than others, including industrial stocks, which is logical since everything was at a standstill " during the health crisis, comments to AFP Frédéric Rozier, portfolio manager at Mirabaud France. “ But what is most striking are the differences between companies in the same sector, ” he explains.
Thus, if Renault shows a historic loss, its competitor PSA remained profitable over the period, despite a drop of 67.5% of its net profit, to 595 million euros.
Same pattern with the banks: BNP Paribas (profit of 3.6 billion euros) and Crédit Agricole (1.6 billion) went through the period almost without damage while Societe Generale (loss of 1.6 billion) suffered from repercussions of the crisis.
The last three companies which have not yet been recorded, the Bouygues group, Cap Gemini and Pernod Ricard, have yet to communicate their results at the end of August and the beginning of September.
