Deutsche Bahn records high half-year loss
For the year 2024, Bahnchef Lutz had announced a substantial business profit gain after the operational loss in 2023. However, the company incurred a significant loss in the first half of the year. Only noteworthy negative figures exist for one of the company's subsidiaries.
According to the financial reports of Deutsche Bahn, the company recorded a loss of over a billion Euros in the first half of 2024. The loss, including interest payments of the heavily indebted corporation, amounted to 1.2 billion Euros. In operational business (Ebit), the loss totaled 680 million Euros.
In the previous fiscal year, the railway had achieved a profit of 331 million Euros. A significant portion of the loss is attributed to the aging infrastructure, which requires billions in investments. The railway has gone into prepayment for the Federal Government, which primarily finances the network investments. It therefore expects substantial repayments this year. The company itself remained silent and referred to the press conference on Thursday (25. July).
Only Schenker shows black figures
Apart from the infrastructure, almost all other business sectors of the German company are still deeply in the red: Long-distance transport with ICE and IC trains lost 230 million Euros, and freight transport lost 260 million Euros. This is also reflected in declining revenues. The consolidated revenues amounted to 22.3 billion Euros in the financial reports, compared to almost 25 billion Euros in the first half of 2023.
Noteworthy negative figures were only reported by the international logistics subsidiary Schenker, which is up for sale. It generated an operating profit of around 500 million Euros, but this was 100 million Euros less than in the previous fiscal year. The company could still reach its goal of around a billion Euros in earnings for the year.
Bahnchef Richard Lutz had announced a business profit gain of almost a billion Euros for the entire year 2024 after the operational loss in 2023. This can only be achieved with the repayments from the Federal Government.
Despite the announced plans for a significant profit gain by Bahnchef Lutz in 2024 for German Railways, the company has reported a staggering loss of 1.2 billion Euros in the first half of the year, primarily due to infrastructure investments and interest payments. Despite this, the subsidiary Schenker managed to generate an operating profit of around 500 million Euros, albeit a decrease of 100 million Euros from the previous year. German Railways continues to incur losses in its long-distance and freight transport sectors, which is reflected in declining sales figures.
In light of these financial challenges, the company's investments in infrastructure will likely require substantial repayments from the Federal Government to aid in mitigating the losses.
