EDF has announced yearly losses for 2022 of nearly 18 billion euros and debts of 64.5 billion euros, due in part to exceptional numbers of repairs to its fleet of nuclear reactors and a resulting drop in electricity production, a French government cap on energy prices for consumers, and EDF's legal obligation to sell electricity at a loss to smaller utility firms.
Champagne producers estimate sales losses to now caused by the public restrictions to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, notably affecting group partying, the restaurant sector and entertainment businesses, amount to around 2 million dollars.
French carmaker Renault on Friday announced it would seek a cut in operating costs of 2 billion euros over the next three years, hinting at a major cull in jobs, after it reported net losses of 141 million euros in 2019, the first in a decade, due to lower sales and a falling contribution from its Japanese partner Nissan.
In a ruling by the Versailles court of appeal on Friday, French bank Société Générale was found to have been in large part responsible for the 4.9 billion euros in losses attributed to the reckless trades of its so-called “rogue trader” Jérôme Kerviel in 2008. The court ruling concerned Kerviel’s appeal against the damages he was required to pay the bank, which until now was fixed as the entire sum of the losses, and which it reduced to 1 million euros. Mediapart economics and finance correspondent Martine Orange analyses here the many consequences of the ruling, not least of which is the demand that the bank now pay back a 2.2-billion-euro tax break it was granted as a result of the sums lost.
Most affected is tourism sector, with Air France estimating losses of 50 million euros, while Bank of France says fourth quarter growth cut by 0.1 pcnt.
