State owned Dutch railway company NS is likely to turn over more abroad than in the Netherlands within the next five years, the group’s CFO Bert Groenewegen said at the presentation of NS’s 2016 results on Tuesday.

‘In 2021 and 2022 foreign turnover will approach that achieved in the Netherlands,’ the Financieele Dagblad reported Groenewegen as saying on Wednesday.

His forecast is based on its subsidiary Abellio keeping its concessions in Britain and expanding those in Germany. ‘Around 2020 results in Germany will reach €500m, rising to €600m a year later if all new concessions are granted. In total that is very close to turnover in the Netherlands if the operation of the stations is kept out of the equation,’ he said.

NS turned over €2.36bn from train services in the Netherlands last year, while transport by rail and bus in Britain raised €1.73bn excluding joint ventures. Turnover in Germany was €194m.

NS booked 2016 net profit of €212m up from €118m in the previous year.