By Markus Wacket
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s national rail operator expects its operating profit to fall by some 70% between this year and next as it completes the sale of its profitable logistics unit Schenker to Denmark’s DSV, according to company documents seen by Reuters on Thursday.
In 2024, Deutsche Bahn including Schenker expects an operating profit of 700 million euros ($740.88 million), and in 2025, after the sale, it expects a result of 200 million euros, the documents show.
Deutsche Bahn had hoped to generate earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) this year of 1 billion euros but performance has been dogged by problems in its inter-city network.
The company declined to comment on the figures on Thursday.
DSV agreed to buy Schenker for 14.3 billion euros ($15.76 billion), allowing Deutsche Bahn to concentrate on its core railway business in Germany and reduce its debt, which amounts to some 33 billion euros.
After interest payments, Deutsche Bahn’s bottom line remains firmly in the red.
With the Schenker sale set to reduce its interest payments on debt, the rail operator aims to deliver a bottom-line profit of one billion euros by 2027, up from a projected 500 million euro loss next year.
($1 = 0.9448 euros)
(Reporting by Markus Wacket, Writing by Rachel More, Editing by Friederike Heine)
