The turnover of these companies increased by 19% in one year and their cumulative profits reached 142 billion euros. Good news for their shareholders, and to a lesser extent for their employees.
“My big company does not know the crisis.” In the light of the results for the year 2022, the bosses of the CAC 40 could revisit the famous song by Alain Bashung. While the war in Ukraine has destabilized certain sectors and inflation is breaking records in France, CAC 40 companies are posting colossal profits.
In total, these companies recorded no less than 142 billion euros in cumulative profits in 2022, thanks in particular to luxury and energy records, according to the result of an AFP calculation published on Thursday 9 March. This is slightly less than the 2021 peak, but it still bodes well for a good year for shareholders. Back on the subject in five questions.
1 What are the CAC 40 companies?
Before looking at their results, a brief reminder of the companies that make up the CAC 40 stock market index. These are not the forty largest companies in the country in terms of turnover or employees, but a mixture of very large companies representing the different branches of activity of the French economy. Their results thus make it possible to reflect the overall trend of the French economy.
Among the major sectors represented, we specifically find energy (TotalEnergies, Engie), luxury (LVMH, Hermes, Kering), industry (Alstom), distribution (Carrefour), agri-food (Danone), automotive (Renault, Stellantis), pharmaceuticals (Sanofi) and even banking and insurance (BNP Paribas, AXA, Société Générale).
2 What are the results of these companies in 2022?
The turnover of CAC 40 companies reached 1,729 billion euros in 2022, according to the AFP count. A figure up 19% over one year, thanks in part to sales inflated by inflation for many groups.
The cumulative net profit of these companies reached 142 billion euros in 2022, thanks to the records of luxury and energy. A colossal amount, but down slightly from 2021, when net profits had reached a record, driven in particular by the extraordinary result of nearly 25 billion from Vivendi due to the sale of Universal Music.
Note that these figures do not take into account two groups, Pernod Ricard and Alstom, whose accounting years are staggered.
3 Which companies made the most profit?
The overall results of CAC 40 companies actually hide some particularly notable performances. On the first step of the podium, we find the TotalEnergies group, which alone achieves nearly 20 billion euros in net profit in 2022. On the second step, the car manufacturer Stellantis (merger of the PSA group and Fiat Chrysler) posted a profit of 16.8 billion euros. Finally, the third step is occupied by the luxury giant LVMH with more than 14 billion euros in profit in 2022.
In total, the energy sector makes 23.2 billion euros in profit in 2022, a figure up 14% compared to 2021. While the war in Ukraine has created new burdens for these companies, it has also fueled the rise in energy prices in the wake of the post-Covid-19 recovery.
Luxury (LVMH, Kering, Hermès, L’Oréal) is also doing well with profits up 23%, or 4.5 billion euros more over one year and an increase of 80% compared to 2019 The secret of its success? The sector did not suffer from the repercussion of the rise in production costs on selling prices.
The strongest profit increases came from Orange and semiconductor maker STMicroelectronics, which benefited from strong global demand for the rare commodity of electronic chips. Note that the biggest profit of a French company in 2022 is not in this list. This is the CMA-CGM group, the world’s third largest shipowner, which made some $24.9 billion in profit in 2022 and which is not listed on the stock exchange.
4 Which companies lost money?
A few rare shadows come to tarnish this picture very favorable to large French companies. Two companies are posting losses in 2022. First of all, Vivendi, which after a record year in 2021 is going into the red, posting the worst loss in the CAC 40 with one billion euros. This poor performance is mainly due to stop accounting for the results of the operator Telecom Italia in the group led by Yannick Bolloré, write The echoes.
The other struggling French flagship is Renault. The manufacturer posted the second net loss of the CAC 40, of 338 million euros. At issue: its sale of the Russian Lada manufacturer, Avtovaz, decided after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which cost it 2.3 billion euros in accounting charges. Apart from this hitch, the news is rather good for the manufacturer: its turnover jumped 11.4% and its operating margin doubled compared to 2021.
5 What are the repercussions for shareholders… and employees?
As the profits, the payments made to the shareholders progress. No CAC 40 group has announced that it will lower its dividends, even though these had already reached a record in 2022 in France and around the world. Conversely, some companies have let it be known that they will remunerate their shareholders more.
The LVMH group, which has paid 5 billion euros in corporate taxes worldwide, should thus pay a total of some 6 billion euros to its shareholders, of which nearly 3 billion go directly… to the family of its CEO Bernard Arnault. The approximately 39,000 French employees of the group will be able to share 400 million euros in dividends.
Societe Generale, for its part, wants to redistribute 90% of its profits to shareholders, despite the fall in its results as a result of the sale of its Russian subsidiary Rosbank. The TotalEnergies group will invest more than 15 billion euros in it from its profits, including four in “low-carbon energies”and pay nearly 9 billion euros in dividends.
Finally, Stellantis will reward its shareholders with 4.2 billion euros in dividends and pay out 2 billion in bonuses for its employees. In France, the manufacturer’s employees will benefit from a minimum of 3,882 euros net of bonuses, i.e. 300 euros more than in 2022. This incentive measure comes on top of a 5.3% salary increase. for the year 2023, negotiated in December with the social partners.