Visteon Corporation (NASDAQ:VC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Operator: We will take our next question from Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Mark Delaney: Yes. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my questions. The company expects customer mix to remain somewhat of a headwind. Can you comment more on how Visteon is positioned with the Chinese domestic auto OEMs? And do you see an opportunity to improve your exposure with the Chinese domestic OEMs?

Sachin Lawande: Yes. That’s a very good question, Mark. And as you know, in China, there has been what some might call a little bit of a wild list type of an environment, a lot of OEMs fighting it out for market share. And it’s going to be very important for us not to be caught in that environment with the ultimately what might prove to be the wrong set of customers. We do not believe that this level of number of OEMs and what’s happening there in the market is sustainable in the long run, we expect that to consolidate. So that’s one thing. Now, having said that, there is also a mix shift between domestic and JV OEMs that we have touched upon previously as well. That mix in 2023 was even more pronounced in favor of the domestic OEMs. It’s about roughly now 60:40, and not too long ago, it used to be the other way around.

So we have been addressing that by growing our business with domestic OEMs and with domestic OEMs that we believe have a longer-term play like Geely and others, we talked about the launch with JMC-Ford. They’re very excited about the potential with them, and we have very good content and a set of vehicles that are planned for launch. So we are taking very measured steps to grow our exposure to the domestic OEMs without necessarily, perhaps falling into some of the pitfalls. So far, it has worked out well. In the interim, we will see some mix — negative mix dynamic, which will improve from what we saw in Q4 will still be negative, but we believe we are in a very good position to navigate those waters and deliver the growth with profitability that we desire.

Mark Delaney: Thanks, Sachin. My next question was with regards to the new 2026 forecast, what percent of your digital electronics revenue is coming from EV programs? And can you give us a sense of how agnostic you might be? And if your own EV — excuse me, if your own OEM customers ship ICE or hybrid vehicles instead of EVs, do you think you’d sell similar digital electronics revenue onto those ICE and hybrids to say your customers do mix faster than you currently anticipate away from EVs?

Sachin Lawande: Yes. As I had mentioned earlier already, we have been growing our sales on EVs with our customers in line with the market. And in 2023, just over 10% of our total sales came from EVs, right? And only a small portion of that low-single-digits was BMS. So we are today well-positioned with respect to the exposure to EVs outside China. As I mentioned, channel is somewhat different in that regard. But outside of China, we are very well-positioned and we expect to grow with the market outside of China as our customers launch new EV models. Now, added to that, our BMS revenues are going to see a faster acceleration, that’s net incremental revenue to us. And in addition to the ramp up of production of models with GM and the new launches that we will see with them this year, I mentioned also that we are launching with two other OEMs this year, which will further diversify and grow our BMS business.

So 2026, what we have assumed is largely a similar sort of exposure to EVs outside of BMS that we have with customers in Europe and Americas. And then the BMS growth that will follow on account of the launches, which is one of the faster growing parts of our business.

Ryan Wentling: This concludes our earnings call for the fourth quarter and full year 2023 results. Thank you, everyone, for participating in today’s call and your ongoing interest in Visteon. Thank you.

Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes Visteon’s fourth quarter and full year 2023 results earnings call. You may now disconnect.

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