German rail operator Deutsche Bahn 2009 net income falls 37 percent to $1.1 billion

Deutsche Bahn 2009 net income falls to $1.1B

FRANKFURT — Deutsche Bahn AG saw its 2009 net income fell to €830 million ($1.1 billion) as passenger and freight levels declined in the downturn, the German rail operator said Thursday.

The company, based in Berlin, earned €1.3 billion in net income in 2008.

Deutsche Bahn, which is majority held by the German government, said revenue declined more than 12 percent to €29.3 billion from €33.5 billion in 2008.

“Defending the company’s economic strength and reducing our indebtedness are two items that will remain at the very top of our agenda in the future,” said Ruediger Grube, Deutsche Bahn’s chief executive, in the report. “There is no reasonable alternative to this stance.”

Deutsche Bahn said it was able to reduce its net debt almost 6 percent to just over €15 billion at the end of 2009 from nearly €16 billion in 2008.

Grube said other plans for Deutsche Bahn include developing the business through several initiatives including customer quality, engineering, and capital expenditure.

The company, for example, wants to renovate about 2,000 small and medium sized train stations across Germany by 2011.

The company said 2009 rail passenger levels declined 0.6 percent to nearly 2 billion people. The number of trains run per day also declined nearly 1 percent to 27,000.

Rail freight levels declined 10 percent to 341 million metric tons or 376 million tons.

Bus passenger levels increased nearly 4 percent to 800 million people in 2009. Deutsche Bahn is the country’s largest bus operator.

The company canceled plans for an IPO in 2008 because it said it wanted to wait until market conditions improved and it made no mention of any new timeline for the initial public offering of its shares.

Its original intent was to sell about 25 percent of its passenger, cargo and logistics divisions, with the tracks to remain in the hands of the government.

On the Net:

www.deutschebahn.com