CGN - no need for life boats

Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Compagnie Générale de Navigation (CGN), which operates pleasure boats and regular boat service on Lake Geneva is not close to bankruptcy, says its managing director, Luc-Antoine Baehni. There is, he states, no reason to suggest the company is going through financially difficult times. “There is no crisis”, he told GenevaLunch, when asked about a report in Le Matin Dimanche 13 September that suggests CGN might be going under, as Swissair did.

The newspaper bases its conclusions on an audit of the company made at the request of the three cantons that subsidize CGN operations: Geneva, Valais and Vaud. The audit was an investigation of the company’s administration.

Baehni says that the audit was completed towards the end of June and was not made public. If Le Matin had access to it, it must have been leaked, he says. The audit was requested by the cantons and there is nothing particularly revealing, he  notes, that could have led Le Matin to publish such “sensationalist” conclusions.

According to the company’s annual report (2008), the cantons currently contribute CHF9.7  million towards covering CGN’s operating budget deficit, according to a formula that calculates boats servicing cantonal ports. Thus, Vaud currently contributes about 71 percent, Geneva 23 percent and Valais less than 6 percent. The French department of Haute Savoie contributes about CHF1m to the budget.

Le Matin points out that CGN is mandated three tasks: to provide a regular boat service, a tourism service, and the upkeep of craft that are up to 100 years old. These missions are sometimes contradictory. Regular boat service could be provided more efficiently using more modern boats, the newspaper suggests.

One of the scenarios CGN has contemplated in its business plan is what will happen if the cantons’ contributions are not adapted for inflation in the future. Baehni points out that if this is the case, certain services will have to be cut, but that this is not a “dramatic revelation.”

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