Regulatory News:
Record Sales
For the three-month period ended December 31, 2013, Autoliv, Inc.
(NYSE:ALV)(STO:ALIVSDB) – the worldwide leader in automotive safety
systems – reported record consolidated sales of $2,352 million.
Quarterly organic sales (non-U.S. GAAP measures, see enclosed
reconciliation table) grew by close to 15%, exceeding our guidance for
organic sales* growth of “more than 9%”.
The higher than expected organic sales* in the quarter led to record
full year sales of $8,803 million and organic sales* growth of 7%
compared to the “more than 5%” expected at the beginning of the quarter.
The adjusted operating margin* for the quarter was 10.0%, exceeding our
guidance of “around 9%”. For the full year 2013, the adjusted operating
margin* was 9.2%.
For the first quarter 2014 we expect organic sales to increase by around
7%, and an adjusted operating margin of around 8%. The indication for
the full year is for organic sales growth of around 5%, and an adjusted
operating margin of around 9%.
Key Figures
|
(Dollars in millions, except per share data)
|
|
|
Q4 2013
|
|
Q4 2012
|
|
Change
|
|
Net sales
|
|
|
$2,351.9
|
|
$2,051.9
|
|
14.6%
|
|
Operating income
|
|
|
$202.7
|
|
$174.3
|
|
16.3%
|
|
Operating margin
|
|
|
8.6%
|
|
8.5%
|
|
0.1pp
|
|
Adjusted operating margin1)
|
|
|
10.0%
|
|
9.4%
|
|
0.6pp
|
|
Earnings per share, diluted2)
|
|
|
$1.04
|
|
$1.45
|
|
(28.3)%
|
|
Adjusted earnings per share, diluted1, 2, 3)
|
|
|
$1.70
|
|
$1.58
|
|
7.6%
|
|
Operating cash flow
|
|
|
$299.2
|
|
$241.2
|
|
24.0%
|
1) Excluding costs for capacity alignments and antitrust
investigations*. 2) Assuming dilution and net of treasury shares. 3)
Excluding a non -cash, non-recurring valuation allowance for deferred
tax assets in 2013 (non -U.S. GAAP measures, see enclosed reconciliation
table).
Comments from Jan Carlson, President & CEO
“The growth in global car production in 2013 was stronger than
anticipated at the beginning of the year. It is satisfying to see that,
by executing our strategies, we managed to benefit from this growth,
ending the year with a quarter of both record sales and double digit
sales growth. I’m also proud that we during the quarter were able to
return $200 million to our shareholders through dividends and share buy
backs. China is today the world’s biggest auto market and we anticipate
that it will continue to grow at healthy rates. In 2013 we grew our
Chinese business by over 25% and in the fourth quarter it grew by over
40%, a tremendous achievement. In 2014 we continue to invest for further
growth as well as vertical integration in China, as Autoliv’s two
biggest investments to date will both start their production, supporting
the further expansion.
Active Safety is the other strategic focus area which stands out in
2013. The strong growth across the active safety product lines gives us
confidence that we are well on track to achieve our active safety
targets of half a billion dollars in sales in 2015 and an operating
margin within our long term corporate target range in the next two to
three years.
In 2014 our transition continues. We will have a year of high
investments in order to support further expansion in the growth markets,
partly through vertical integration. At the same time we are adjusting
our global footprint to adapt to the changes in the market. We also
continue to address our operational margin challenges in Europe and
Brazil. Through a combination of our growth strategy, focus on quality,
and execution of the 2014 transition, we believe we will be able to
achieve margin improvements beyond 2014.”
An earnings conference call will be held at 2:30 p.m. (CET) today,
January 31. To follow the webcast or to obtain the pin code and phone
number, please access www.autoliv.com.
The conference slides will be available on our web site as soon as
possible following the publication of this earnings report.
This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com
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