logo

Forvia Se

Q22025

7/28/2025

speaker
Martin Fischer
Group CEO, Forvia

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our 2025 half-year results call. I'm presenting this morning together with our CFO, Olivier Durand. I'll start by sharing our H1 highlights. Then Olivier will walk you through the financial results. And in the end, I'll wrap up with our outlook for the rest of the year. So starting with our H1 highlights, I will present them as three distinct chapters that match the three pillars of our strategy, performance, transformation, and culture. I'm very pleased, in fact, to report that we have made solid progress on all three of these priorities that we set out earlier this year. First, our drive for best-in-class performance is reflected in increased operating margin and stronger cash flow. Second, our business transformation has gained further momentum, both in terms of portfolio review and disposal execution. And third, when it comes to invigorating our culture, we are reorganizing and simplifying our operating model. This will support a more agile and efficient organization. These three priorities are being emphasized by two key management changes. Olivier Lefebvre has been appointed to group COO with a clear objective to drive performance. And Carla Gohan has been recruited as group strategy officer, also in charge of technology and innovation. She will drive the business transformation of the group. Both of them were closely with me and the executive committee to shape Forvia's value creation. Let's move to the results. As you can see in the summary chart, in H1, we have delivered a series of solid financial metrics. All of them confirm the trajectory of our full year guidance. We managed an organic sales growth of 1.1%, whereas product sales, in fact, grew by 2.9%. Strict cost control, effective tariff mitigation, and the impact of our EU Forward program supported the operating margin, which grew by 20 basis points to 5.4%. Our net cash flow increased significantly and is of higher quality than before. €418 million are mainly driven by stronger EBITDA, as well as CAPEX reduction and lower capitalized research and development costs. We were able to reduce our net debt by almost €200 million. Together with the increased EBITDA, our leverage ratio came down to 1.8 times. This performance really reflects the dedication and the hard work of our team. They are all so committed, it has been so essential for us to drive these results in H1. We are ready to keep moving forward while continuing strict cost and cash management. We will improve industrial efficiency and fix our underperforming plants. Now let's turn our attention to the H1 growth story. I'll begin with China, the largest and fastest growing market, which is VIA's first country for sales. We hold strong positions in China, thanks to our footprint, our innovation, and an extremely strong team driving our local-for-local developments. We have significant manufacturing presence in China, and this is further strengthened now by two new plants that reinforce our positioning with Chinese automakers. We have launched a new plant for BYD in our seeding business, and we now have a manufacturing setup next to each BYD factory in China. With CHERRY, we have also commissioned a new plant. On the supply side, to increase our competitiveness and innovation, we have founded a local JV with Fawon in seeding. Our Local4Local technologies were also recognized with more than 10 new business awards. And customer-facing innovations such as Zen Massage, Zero Gravity Seeds and Kinematic Displays open new revenue pools, both in China and beyond. More broadly, we achieved strong commercial success in China during the first half of the year. 30% of our global audit intake comes from China, two-thirds of which was with Chinese automakers. More specifically, we have secured significant contracts with BYD, Cherry and another electric vehicle manufacturer. So industrial excellence and innovation continue to drive our success in China. This brings me to my final slide on H1 performance. This is order intake. For we have booked 14 billion Euro of new orders across our different products and regions. Some new programs and their tenders were delayed due to the business impact our customers experienced from tariffs. This was particularly obvious in North America. On the other hand, we can benefit from extended life cycles of existing models without having to invest in new developments. Lastly, upfront costs are steadily decreasing on new contracts that we signed. Looking a bit deeper at the composition of our order intake shows that Asia and electronics are the key growth drivers for the group. Asia accounts for 36% of our order intake compared to 25% of fovea sales in the first half of the year. Beyond the very positive acquisitions in China, we have also secured strategically important businesses in India and in Korea. We gained first-time access to specific markets with two Japanese and one Chinese customer. The electronics business also recorded strong commercial success. representing 34% of our order intake. Business of high strategic relevance for electronics was dipped in the fields of zone controllers. Here we obtained several orders for two European premium manufacturers for a total amount of over 1 billion euro. We were also successful in battery management systems for a US customer. And last not least, we secured several radar applications in Europe. Now, still staying on our first priority, performance, I would like to introduce a new initiative, Project Simplify. We constantly need to work on our cost base to remain competitive. Following the EU Forward program, which aims to restore industrial performance in Europe, we are launching a new global plan. It is designed to generate additional savings on SG&A and indirect costs. Here we act in a number of levers in this regard. Looking at our organizational structure, we are going to reduce the number of layers. Non-valuable activities are being dropped and we are going to work on lean and automated processes. The rollout of the program has started and we expect 110 million Euro in annual cost savings by 2028. with cumulative restructuring costs of 150 million Euro between 2025 and 2028. Let me now turn to an update on the second pillar of our three priorities, transformation. Our business transformation efforts are in full motion. Our goal is to forge a future portfolio that comprises businesses in which Fovea covers a true leadership position in the whole world market. This portfolio will be focused on what we do best, especially the core technologies where we are the strongest. This is where we can create the best long-term value. We have been performing a portfolio review of all our six business groups and 24 product lines to identify higher synergies, for example in the electronics area, to simplify the scope and to dispose of certain activities. As a result, an increasing number of assets may qualify for disposals. Furthermore, I want to confirm that we are progressing well with the process of sizable disposals. One product line requires special comments this time. These are our hydrogen solutions. You have certainly noticed that Stellantis is discontinuing its activities. and Olivier will detail in the financial section the provision made on Symbio due to the student's decision. Nevertheless, we continue to believe in the strategic role of hydrogen in decarbonizing mobility, albeit with a clear market delay. Therefore, we are taking this reality into account. We are slowing down our own hydrogen investments, also on the tank side, and we are limiting cash consumption. In conclusion, we have a multitude of actions underway to support our top priority, which is deleveraging the group. Let's now turn to our third strategic priority, invigorating for VR's culture. Accountability and empowerment are the two key drivers of our future performance. a highly efficient organizational setup and operating model form the base. Therefore, we are making some major changes to our organization. Looking at the current setup and exchanging with many of our leaders globally, I concluded that we suffered from two key problems. First, there are redundant and at times conflicting P&L responsibilities on the XCOM level between the global business groups and the regions. And secondly, when getting to the operational units, namely the plants and the divisions, there are too many interactions within the matrix. This undermines empowerment and autonomy. Going forward, we will have one clear and linear flow of the P&L, from plants to divisions to business groups and then to fovea. In terms of organization, we are becoming division-centric. As a reminder, the division is the regional unit of a global business group. We are going to fully empower the divisions who are close to their respective markets and operations. This way, we will increase customer proximity, adaptability to the specific regional market needs, and speed of decision making. Divisions will be fully equipped with all the functions and resources to run their businesses and therefore truly own their P&L responsibility. Before I hand over to Olivier to lead through the financial results, let me recap by saying that at the end of H1, for we are now heading in the right direction on performance, transformation and a culture of greater accountability. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the EXCOMM and all the FORVIA teams around the globe for their great efforts to deliver on our three priorities in H1.

speaker
Olivier Durand
CFO, Forvia

Olivier, handing over to you. Thank you, Martin, and good morning, everyone. I will present the financial results of FORVIA for the first semester 25. Let me start with revenues. In the first half, sales reached €13.5 billion, up 1.1 organically. This growth was driven by strong double-digit performance in electronics and solid momentum in seating. Actually, the product sales increased by 2.9% versus last year, basically in line with global vehicle production, which grew by 3.1% in the first semester. This increase, however, was partly offset by tooling sales that came back to a more recurrent level after the exceptional high value that we recorded in H1-24 as many programs were launched in North America in that period. On a reported basis, sales were down slightly by 0.4%. This is coming from currency effects. They turned negative in Q2, with the euro strengthening against all major currencies, the US dollar, the Chinese yuan, and importantly for us, the Turkish lira as well, for a total impact of 1.5% negative on the revenues. Looking ahead, at current exchange rate, we expect currency effect to reduce our second half revenues by at least 500 million euros. Let me look at our performance versus the market. Our organic growth of 1.1% represents an underperformance of 2 points compared to the global automotive production. However, if we adjust for the unfavorable geographical mix, which weighted close to 4 points in H1, given the difference in market growth between Europe and other regions, Forvia actually outperformed the markets by around two points. If I go in more details by regions, in Europe, sales grew despite a significant market decline, which translates into a stronger performance in the region, driven by seating, electronics, and lighting. In North America, sales declined in line with the market volume, and adjusted for the The reduction of the tooling sales returning to a more recurrent level, our product sales outperformed the market in North America, supported by electronics and clean mobility. In China, sales grew 1.5% organically. Even though we have been underperforming in this market in H1-25, let me highlight that we continue to grow our activity and presence with Chinese OEMs, with whom we grow 13% organically in the period. And in Asia outside China, we deliver double-digit growth and stronger performance, supported by the development of our activities with different Japanese OEMs. Now, let me turn to the operating margin. It improved by 20 basic points year-on-year, reaching 5.4% of sales, or €722 million. First, let me highlight that tariffs had a marginal impact on those results, thanks to adjustment on our footprint and work by the North American team with our suppliers and our customers. The main driver of the margin improvement was the execution in our cost reduction programs, which allowed to reduce our fixed costs in the period by 90 million euros. We see the first tangible benefits of EU Forward activities, with a 100 basic points margin improvement in EMEA from 3.1% to 4.1%, as well as the continuation of the synergies with Forviaela. On the downside, we faced negative currency effects, the translation of our activities in US dollar and Chinese yuan, and a high level of amortization, which peaked in the first half. The key takeaway of the operating margin is that we have been able to accelerate the structural reduction of our cost base. We deliver the performance richer in cash compared to last year, as shown by the strong increase in our EBITDA margin, which is actually up 100 basic points year on year. So how does this translate by business groups? Seating and electronics were the main drivers of the margin progression, thanks to operating leverage on the additional activities. Interiors also contributed, even though from a low base. We saw noticeable improvements in Europe, but operational challenges impacted North America. As we said in our Q1 call, a dedicated task force is on those topics. We achieved noticeable progress in the back half of the period, and H2 will show further positive developments there. Lighting margin decreased from 5.0 to 4.4%, penalized by lower volumes, as well as some specific issues in North America. We do expect some improvements in H2, especially in North America. Clean Mobility maintained a very solid margin despite lower sales and a less favorable customer mix. When I exclude hydrogen storage activities, our exhaust system business stayed around double-digit margin. And finally, Lifecycle Solutions showed a drop in operating margin year on year. However, you may remember that profitability significantly deteriorates in H224 on the back of low volume. This situation is improving with actually a sequential improvement of 260 basic points versus H224 driven by restructuring and pricing actions. Margin is therefore returning progressively towards the normal level of a double digit profitability. Let's now look at the full income statement of Forvia. Forvia is posting a net loss of €269 million in H1. This is mainly due to one specific one-off and the current high level of restructuring charges. The one-off cost is linked to Symbio, our joint ventures with Michelin and Stellantis, which is focused on hydrogen fuel cell technologies. As already mentioned by Martin, Stellantis, which represented 80% of Symbio's expected volumes, decided to end its hydrogen activities. This created significant operational and financial risks for Symbio. Consequently, we have booked a non-cash charge of a depreciation of our financial assets in the joint venture for a total of 136 million euros. On restructuring, the charges are fully in line with the ramp-up of the EU Forward Programme. In the first half, we announced an additional 2,100 headcount reductions, bringing the total to 5,000 since the start of the program, and we are ahead of our initial schedule. These charges also include restructuring costs in North America aimed at streamlining the organization in the context of the tariffs, and as a consequence, lower activity in the U.S. market. Finally, I would like to make the comparison with H-124. The difference between the two years are solely related to one-offs. We had last year a positive one-off coming from a capital gain of €134 million related to the sale of the Elastic in BHTC to AUO. Now let me go to the net cash flow on page 17. In the first half, Net cash flow more than doubled compared to H1-24, reaching €418 million. This improvement was not only in quantity, but also in quality. It came from two sustainable drivers. The first one, the increase in EBITDA of €127 million. The second one, the reduction in investments, CAPEX and capitalized R&D, The reduction has been €232 million in the period. More specifically, tangible capex were down 35%, reflecting strict cash discipline, the footprint reduction in Europe, as well as shift in some programs. Capitalized R&D followed the same trend, mirroring the optimization in our R&D investments. Both reductions reflect our efforts to reduce upfront costs and benefits coming from EU forward restructuring. Importantly, this net cash flow was achieved with no net contribution from working capital and factory. However, for the year, we expect still around €200 million of positive working capital contribution which will be mainly from inventory reductions. For the rest of the cash flow, let me highlight that the increase in tax cash out is only due to the refund last year of the withholding tax of 68 million euros, which was related to an extraordinary dividend received from Forvia ELA the year before. Net of this effect tax cash out will have been reduced by 22 million year-on-year. Finally, below the net cash flow, when we deduct dividends to minorities and the impact of IFRS 16 on new lease, the net debt decreased actually by 193 million euros to 6.3 billion. Combined with the higher EBITDA, the net cash flow generation allows us to reduce our leverage ratio by 0.2 times to 1.8 times at the end of the semester. To conclude this financial review of H1 results, let me look at the debt maturity and profile. In the first half, we have been active on the debt markets, issuing close to 1.7 billion euros in new debts to extend our maturities. This allows us a further improvement of our financial debt profile. We have cleared most of the 25 and 26 maturities and start addressing the 27 ones. We have been able to spread our debt more evenly over the following years. We also continue to diversify our funding sources. notably by issuing our first ever bond on the US bond market, which is, as you know, the largest in the world. On top of the €193 million reduction in net debt, we also reduced the gross cash by €128 million, which means that our gross debt was reduced by €321 million. In this context, we confirm our ambition to lower our gross cash position by 500 million for the full year, from 4.5 to 4 billion euros, through enhanced cash pooling and cash upstreaming. This will extend the reduction of our gross debt beyond the net cash flow generation. On this note, I hand over back to you, Martin. Thank you. Olivier, thank you.

speaker
Martin Fischer
Group CEO, Forvia

So let's go into the outlook for the remainder of the year 2025. And looking forward, it is clear the automotive production is forecast by S&P to be flat compared to H1, but facing a 2.2% decline compared to H2 of prior year. The geomix, however, which was a clear headwind in H1, should stabilize for us in H2. Uncertainty and volatility in general remain high, which is why we will maintain the same focus as in the first half, prioritizing the following four actions. We continue our strict cost and cash discipline. We seize opportunities in all regions. That means we continue the implementation of EU Forward in Europe. We will further stabilize underperforming operations in North America. And we are going to leverage our new program launches in China. Number three, we are going to further pursue our disposal process with full attention. And number four, we are going to implement the new organizational setup and push the simplified project as introduced today. Let me tell you, five months into the role, I can say that we have nicely aligned on the goals and priorities within 4via's executive committee. And the H1 results show that we also deliver as a team. Therefore, I'm happy to confirm all elements of our 2025 guidance and the leverage target for 2026 as communicated in the beginning of the year. In summary, our three priorities of performance, transformation, and a culture of accountability and empowerment offer a solid foundation for a new strategic plan. And I personally look forward to presenting this new plan to you during our Capital Markets Day on February the 24th in 2026. With this, we are arriving at the end of the prepared remarks, and we are opening up for Q&A.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

-

-