The ČD Group has reported improvement of its economic result by CZK 2 billion last year

The consolidated economic result of the ČD Group before taxation according to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) amounted to CZK 396 million last year. The Group’s economic performance thus improved by CZK 2 billion year-on-year. The return of passengers back to the board of trains had a positive effect on this fact. In addition to domestic long-distance and regional routes, there was a gradual recovery in the field of international traffic as well.

České dráhy transported 157 million customers last year, i.e., 36 million more than in the previous year. Last year’s transport performance reached 7.7 billion passenger-kilometres and the average travel distance rose to 49 kilometres, which was even higher than in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. “After two years of losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent sharp rise in the price of inputs, it is just the comeback of people to travelling by trains that was the main prerequisite for the national carrier to approach a balanced economic result and to end up with a slight profit before taxation. However, in view of the massive renewal of the rolling stock and elimination of the historical capital expenditure debts, we have to raise a part of the financial means for new investments from third-party sources,” says Michal Krapinec, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of České dráhy. The rolling stock renewal is currently financially secured by the last autumn’s issue of the so-called green bonds and through credit facilities from Eurofima.

České dráhy put dozens of new trains into service in the area of both regional and long-distance transport services at a total cost of approximately CZK 9 billion last year. New RegioPanter units were introduced to the regions and the carrier deployed comfortable InterJet trains on the Západní expres and Krušnohor lines. The renewal of the rolling stock will continue also this year, when České dráhy is to invest CZK 11.5 billion in new trains. Additional new RegioPanters or brand-new train units – RegioFox train sets – will start running in regions. However, transport services are complicated by delayed deliveries of new vehicles and by continuous extension of the deadlines for repairs and modernisations carried out at external suppliers. In addition to other measures on the part of ČD, the earlier deployment of the ComfortJet long-distance trains, the production of which started in 2022, will also contribute to improving the current situation. ČD plans to deploy the first trainsets consisting of new carriages as early as 2024 on the basis of an agreement with suppliers.

Rail freight transport also contributed to the overall positive result of the ČD Group. ČD Cargo realised a profit before taxation amounting to CZK 310 million when it transported 64.2 million tonnes of cargo, i.e., 1.4 million tonnes more in the year-on-year comparison. The performance grew not only on the domestic transport market, but especially abroad, where ČD Cargo successfully continues its expansion and thus it manages to profound its cooperation with major customers in international transport. However, ČD Cargo’s result was negatively affected by the extreme growth of costs due to the increase in the price of virtually all inputs, which the freight carrier had to partially pass on to its customers in the form of additional increases in the prices charged. Nevertheless, the energy crisis also brought increased demand for solid fuel transport to power and heating plants. The positive result will enable ČD Cargo to continue the process of modernisation and renewal of its rolling stock, i.e., locomotives and freight wagons, which is absolutely necessary for assurance of an adequate capacity on the European rail market also in the future.

The business plan for 2023 assumes that the economic performance of the parent company “České dráhy” will achieve further improvement and that the other companies of the ČD Group will also continue in their positive trend.