STOCKHOLM, Jan. 30, 2018
/PRNewswire/ --
For the three-month period ended December 31, 2017, Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV)
(SSE: ALIV.Sdb), the worldwide leader in automotive safety
systems, reported record consolidated sales of $2,729 million. Quarterly organic sales* grew by
1.1%. The operating margin was 0.5% and the adjusted operating
margin* was 9.6% (for non-U.S. GAAP measures see enclosed
reconciliation tables).
The expectation at the beginning of the quarter was for
quarterly organic sales to be "virtually flat" and an adjusted
operating margin to be "more than 9%".
For the first quarter of 2018, the Company expects organic sales
growth to be less than 1% and the adjusted operating margin to be
around 9%. The consolidated sales growth is expected to be more
than 7% in the first quarter 2018. The indication for the full year
adjusted operating margin is around 9% and an organic sales growth
of more than 7% resulting in a consolidated sales growth of more
than 11%. (See the "Outlook" section on the next page for further
discussion of organic sales and adjusted operating margin, which
are forward-looking non-U.S. GAAP measures).
Key Figures
For Key Figures summary table, please refer to attached file
below.
Comments from Jan Carlson,
Chairman, President & CEO
"The fourth quarter ended a year of records and exciting
announcements. We are pleased that the fourth quarter sales and
gross profit were the highest we have reported for any quarter. The
full year 2017 was also the best year we have reported for sales
and gross profit. Building on this solid base, we look forward with
great expectations, as order intake in 2017 reached new historic
highs for each of our Passive Safety and Electronics segments. This
includes new record high order intake for Active Safety and for
Restraint Control Systems, while ANBS almost managed to repeat its
strong 2016 order intake. Our achievements in 2017, especially our
order intake records and gross margin progression reinforce our
confidence in the sales and margin targets presented at our Capital
Markets Day (CMD) on September 14,
2017.
We continued to broaden our customer and product base in Active
Safety in the fourth quarter, including increasing from three to
four Vision customers and winning our first LiDAR order. The strong
order intake in the fourth quarter supports the sales progression
outlined at our CMD, that we expect the sales trend in Electronics
to improve in 2019 and beyond. Following two years of record order
intake in Electronics, we will step up our R,D&E efforts
further in 2018, to support the development of received orders and
future product solutions, by increasing R,D&E costs by up to
$70 million.
The step-up in growth in Passive Safety was slightly ahead of
plan in the fourth quarter, as the increased number of product
launches added more than 3pp to organic sales growth* in the
segment, partially offset by lower inflator replacement sales and
temporary model mix headwinds. In 2018, we expect the contribution
from increased product launches to accelerate gradually while the
model mix and inflator replacement headwinds subsides after the
first quarter leading to our expectation that a more than 2%
organic sales growth in the first quarter becomes more than 10% for
the full year in Passive Safety.
Building on the board's decision in December 2017 to move forward with the separation
of our business segments, we are working hard to prepare for the
separate listing of our Electronics business as a stand-alone
company in the third quarter of 2018. We are looking forward to
seeing Passive Safety and Electronics releasing their full
potential in the years to come.
With quality as our first priority, we continue to execute on
our growth and margin opportunities while staying focused on saving
more lives and creating value for our stakeholders."
An earnings conference call will be held at 2:00 p.m. (CET) today, January 30. 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.
CONTACT:
Thomas Jönsson
Group Vice President Communications
Tel +46(0)8-58-72-06-27
This information was brought to you by Cision
http://news.cision.com
http://news.cision.com/autoliv/r/financial-report-october---december-2017,c2440687
The following files are available for download:
http://mb.cision.com/Main/751/2440687/783962.pdf
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SOURCE Autoliv