Plagued by the health crisis and its economic consequences, the CAC 40 groups experienced a black year in 2020, during which their profits were cut in half, according to a provisional count made Friday by AFP.
Read also: How the CAC 40 has changed with the pandemic
The 35 companies in the flagship index of the Paris Stock Exchange that have already published their results have accumulated a total of just over 32 billion euros in profits last year.
This represents a decline of 56% compared to 2019, when the peak was reached in 2017, with 96.6 billion euros.
The aggregate turnover of the main French flagships has also suffered from the health crisis since it fell by around 13.5% to stand at some 1.075 billion euros.
"
The year has been extremely complex but the CAC 40 companies are strong and some have done well
," commented to AFP Frédéric Rozier, portfolio manager at Mirabaud France.
The gloomy picture hides disparate realities, some groups having all the same managed to pull out of the game and to play with the crisis.
Sanofi and Orange take advantage of the crisis
The pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, which is struggling to find the right formula for its anti-Covid vaccines and has had to resolve for the time being to help competitors manufacture theirs, thus saw its net profit soar by nearly 340% , to more than 12 billion euros.
But this outbreak mainly hides a financial transaction, linked to the sale of shares in an American biotech.
Orange also took advantage of an exceptional element to be among the strongest increases in terms of profits: aided by a favorable decision of the Council of State concerning a former tax dispute, its net income increased by some 60 % last year to around 5 billion.
Abyssal losses for others
Conversely, several big French names came out of the year 2020, posting sometimes abysmal losses.
This is particularly the case of the car manufacturer Renault, which suffered a historic loss of 8 billion euros, largely caused by its Japanese partner Nissan.
Another giant hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic, Total lost $ 7.2 billion (around 6.3 billion euros) last year due to the fall in the oil markets, while it had recorded a profit of 11.2 billion in 2019 (around 10.1 billion euros).
Between these two extremes, if the agrifood industry with Danone (net profit up 1.4%) has rather held up, the banks generally remained profitable but saw their profits fall sharply under the effect of the crisis (-13, 5% for BNP Paribas or -44.4% for Crédit Agricole SA).