Renault’s CEO warns of a tough 2021
The French automotive group Renault’s CEO Luca de Meo warns of headwinds in 2021, among other things with reference to the global shortage of semiconductors. Renault shares fall sharply on the Paris Stock Exchange after the announcement, down by almost 4 percent.
Group management has not given a profit forecast for the full year, after the record loss of 8 billion euros for the pandemic year 2020. But De Meo, who took over as CEO just over six months ago, sees good conditions for the savings package that will reduce costs by 2 billion euros. be ready early – maybe already in December this year.
– The beginning of the year has shown some signs of weakness, says De Meo at an analyst conference.
However, he emphasizes that margins improved slightly during the second half of 2020.
But Renault was less equipped than many other carmakers when the pandemic struck. The company went back already in 2019, then with an annual loss of 141 million euros.
The loss for 2020 of eight billion was unexpectedly large. Analysts had expected an average blow of 7.4 billion euros.
In addition to cost-saving measures – which include major notices and discontinued production of certain car models – Renault is trying to strengthen earnings with the help of price increases on other car models.
