Finance in brief

The COVID-19 crisis still has a significant impact on NS's financial performance. NS posted revenues of €6,486 million in 2021 (2020: €6,601 million). As in the previous year, in 2021 NS received compensation from the Dutch government to keep trains running, despite the sharp fall in passenger numbers due to the pandemic and the official advice to work from home. In 2021 the compensation amounted to €925 million (2020: €818 million). Without this compensation and taking non-recurring exceptional items into account, the underlying result from operating activities amounted to a loss of €925 million (2020: a loss of €890 million).

Introduction

In the past year, NS invested €554 million (2020: €548 million), mainly in the procurement of new trains and in upgrades of existing trains. NS posted a positive result from operating activities of €482 million (2020: €2,443 million negative). The result from operating activities includes exceptional income of €531 million attributable in particular to lower depreciation due to the impairment of the main rail network franchise in 2020, the partial release of the provision created in 2020 for terminating the franchise agreements in the United Kingdom, and the reversal of an impairment in the United Kingdom. Without these exceptional items, the result from operating activities amounted to a loss of €49 million. The net financing result of -€349 million is largely attributable to the write-down of the Abellio Germany participation to zero as a result of the deconsolidation and the costs associated with the restructuring and termination of several Abellio Germany franchises. NS has financed the costs of the restructuring and termination of the contracts in Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia (to an expected amount of approx. €101 million) since 1 July 2021. The net profit in 2021 is €500 million (2020: a net loss of €2,581 million).