Starting 1 January 2020, French state-owned railway entities will merge, forming SNCF SA, a holding company, under France’s railway reform act of June 2018, which calls for combining the three current EPICs (French state-owned entities) – SNCF, SNCF Mobilités, and SNCF Réseau and their subsidiaries into a single, publicly owned rail transport and mobility group.
At the same time, SNCF SA’s operational business will be transferred to SNCF Voyageurs SA, which will combine passenger operations and rolling stock activities of the former SNCF Mobilités EPIC. Thus, at 1 January 2020, SNCF Group will consist of a holding company, SNCF SA, which will itself have several subsidiaries, including SNCF Voyageurs SA and SNCF Réseau SA.
As a result, from 1 January 2020 the bond debt of the former SNCF Mobilités EPIC will be held by SNCF SA.
SNCF SA, the new group’s parent company, will provide strategic and financial leadership for the combined group under the independence requirements governing infrastructure managers.
As part of the reform, SNCF Group will change its financing policy. Effective 1 January 2020, SNCF SA will act as the Group’s sole issuer on financial markets, entrusted with raising financing for the entire Group.
Exceptionally and for operational reasons linked to the deployment of a single issuance system, for a transitional period that will not extent beyond 30 June 2020, SNCF Réseau SA will be able to continue to raise its own funding on the capital markets.
In accordance with the Group’s commitments, SNCF Réseau’s outstanding debt at 30 June 2020 will remain on SNCF Réseau SA’s balance sheet after this date. There are no plans to transfer this outstanding debt to SNCF SA or any other Group entity.
In 2018, SNCF recorded a EUR 33.3 billion revenue and has 272,000 employees in 120 countries.
SNCF Réseau is the second largest public investor in France, with 58,000 employees and 2018 revenue of EUR 6.3 billion, including EUR 3.4 billion in track access fees from SNCF Mobilités. The infrastructure manager guarantees access to the network and to service infrastructures for its 42 customers.
SNCF Mobilités has 204,000 employees and in 2018 recorded EUR 31.7 billion revenue. The transport operator is present in 120 countries.
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