For the three-month period ended 31 December 2013, Autoliv reported record consolidated sales of US$2.35bn from $2.05bn last year, a gain of 14.6%. The company’s operating income for the period was up 16.3% to $202.7m compared to $174.3m in 2012. Quarterly organic sales grew by close to 15%, exceeding the 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 $8,803m 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%, exceeding the company’s guidance of ‘around 9%’. For the full year 2013, the adjusted operating margin was 9.2%.
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For the first quarter 2014, the company expects 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%.
“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,” said Jan Carlson, president and CEO.
“I’m also proud that we during the quarter were able to return $200m 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.”
Carlson also highlighted the company’s presence in active safety product fields.
“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 $500m in sales in 2015 and an operating margin within our long term corporate target range in the next two to three years.”
He also said that Autoliv expects financial performance to improve further in 2014.
“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.”
