EUR 212.46 For Business Accounts Only

FAURECIA: Strong 2H16 again, confident outlook

​Faurecia, the French automotive equipment supplier, posted a sound set of 2H16 results. As opposed to Adient, Faurecia did not show any top line softness with value added sales up 3.5% like for like to €7,692m. Those were mainly driven by Asia with a 12.5% growth, above market’s 11.4%. China was naturally the main contributor as it saw sales surging by 9% notably fueled by the consumer’s rush before the decrease of tax incentives. On the other hand, exposure to underperforming models was behind Europe’s (-1%) and North America’s (-0.1%) lag compared to the market.EBITDA rise of 8% to €826m (9% margin) is impressive notably when considering a higher R&D spending related to 2017 projects. Higher capex drove free cash flow into negative territory in H2 (-€42m) diminishing the LTM figure to €87m. However, net leverage was still down by 0.4x to a record...