Faurecia has reported 2019 sales of EUR17.8bn, up 1.4%, alongside increased operating income to EUR1,283m (+0.7%) and operating margin at 7.2%.
The company said resilience of operating margin came despite a strong negative impact from volume/mix of EUR188m and was achieved thanks to cost savings of EUR175m.
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Net cash flow was EUR587.0m, up 11.2% year-on-year and well above the guidance of at least EUR500m. It included a positive impact from the disposal of Clarion's HQ in Saitama for EUR110m and a negative impact from higher restructuring (EUR73m).
CEO Patrick Koller said Faurecia demonstrated resilience in a very challenging environment whilst 'continuing to deploy our transformation strategy'.
"We achieved all our financial targets thanks to our agility to adapt to market conditions that worsened during the year. At the same time, we actively implemented our strategy focused on the Cockpit of the Future and Sustainable Mobility. We created our new Business Group, Faurecia Clarion Electronics, which has a clear and robust roadmap for profitable growth, and we acquired the remaining 50% stake in SAS that we will consolidate as from this year," he said.
Koller also highlighted hydrogen investments. "We also continued our investment in Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles through the creation of a 50/50 joint venture with Michelin."
He said 2020 will be another challenging year in terms of market conditions. "We expect, at this stage, a drop of about 3% in worldwide automotive production. We have the appropriate plans in place to improve our performance. We will remain focused on resilience and cash generation."
