In the dire crisis of three years ago, Renault shines. Historic profits are associated with particularly sharp cost reductions, a flurry of new models: never in a quarter of a century has an automobile manufacturer faced adversity as quickly as the Renault Group under Luca di Meo. Even Carlos Ghosn at Nissan in 1999, or Sergio Marchionne at Fiat in 2004, or Carlos Tavares at Stallantis between 2014 and 2018 took a little longer to turn their companies around.
” This is the fastest recovery in the automobile industry », Group Financial Director Thierry Peyton admits, presenting record results with an operating profit of close to 2.5 billion euros for a turnover of 52 billion euros, both an increase of 13%. Operating margin increased by 1.5 billion, to 4.1 billion euros, 2.4 points compared to 2022 and represents 7.9% of turnover, a better performance than the objective, which was between 7% and 8%.
Net profit rose by 2.3 billion euros to 3 billion euros, despite selling shares to Nissan for 880 million euros. In short, historic results, even if they pale ahead of what Stellantis will present this Thursday. Shareholders are not forgotten: they will be paid A dividend of 1.85 euros per share or 1.60 euros more than in 2022!
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These very good figures are mainly due to the inflow of the group’s order book after multiple crises in the sector in recent years. but also ” Successful launch of new vehicles and reduction in production costs », added Thierry Peyton. The result: sales are up 9% compared to 2022 and Renault sold more than 2.2 million vehicles last year. Of these, Renault Austral and Espace are the most profitable, Thierry Peyton said. The group still entered the price war initiated by Tesla by cutting the price of some of its models since January, such as the Magen E-Tech.
Ampere reassured the market
The new electric models are now grouped together under a subsidiary called Ampere, which was officially formed on November 1. After multiplying announcements of its possible IPO, Luca Di Maio, Renault’s general director, gave up on the idea. “Market conditions were not met” And his group had enough cash to finance the first phase of the project. In 2024, Renault will actually generate a record cash flow of 3 billion euros, an increase of 900 million euros compared to last year.
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Ampere will undertake major projects for Renault. In two weeks, the group will present its new electric Renault 5 at the Geneva Motor Show. This historic car should bring the diamond brand to the electric city car range, the most popular on the market, but subject to the strongest competition. Thus, the group hopes to make this car into production. mass market
» and which will allow it to achieve its objective of producing 1 million electric cars in 8 years, compared to 45,000 currently. Renault is also counting on the Electric Scenic and the new Dacia Spring to boost its order book this year. A total of 10 new models are expected for this year.Worries about 2024
However, the automobile market in Europe, Renault’s main market, looks uncertain in 2024. “Given manufacturers’ investment in power, there are concerns about volumes not as expected”, The major automobile union Pfa made the announcement on Wednesday. The group also suffers from its history and doubts about certain projects, especially its own Software Defined VehicleThat will be delayed according to information released by Les Echos this week.
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Despite this concern, analyst consensus instead expects Renault’s turnover to rise to 54.7 billion euros for 2024. According to him, the operating margin should decrease slightly to 3.9 billion euros. For its part, Renault forecasts an operating margin of more than 7.5% of turnover. and 10% in 2030.
Tomorrow, Renault will also have to convince the market of its sustainability for the coming years after the recent comments of Stellantis director Carlos Tavares on the need for a merger of the French manufacturer, which according to him is too small. The idea of a merger between Stellantis and Renault was also mentioned. This would be a possible merger” Irrational
» To Philippe Huchois, an analyst at Jefferies. Renault, for its part, did not want to comment.