Veoneer: Financial Report January - March 2020

STOCKHOLM, April 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial Summary - Q1'20

• Underlying financial results better than expected, due to our Market Adjustment Initiatives (MAI)

• Net Sales $362 million

• Net Sales decline 27% including Organic Sales1 decline 15%, 9pp better than the global LVP

• Active Safety Net Sales decline 15% including Organic Sales decline of 13%

• Operating cash flow $(9) million

Outlook - FY'20

• Withdraw previous Organic Sales FY'20 indication, however expect to outperform the global LVP primarily driven by new program launches

• Currency translation impact is expected to be ~(2)%

• RD&E, net is expected to improve by approximately $100 million from 2019, on a comparable basis

• Cash flow before financing activities1  is expected to significantly improve and the operating loss is expected to improve, both from 2019 levels (on a comparable basis) due to the success of our MAI program

Business  Highlights

• Cash balance increased to $970 million due to strong cash flow performance and proceeds from the VNBS-Asia divestiture

• MAI program contributed to our strong cash flow before financing activities1  performance of $124 million

• Additional MAIs underway to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our cash flow and operating results

• Order intake for Q1'20 was approximately $175 million of average annual sales, with Active Safety more than 50%

• Veoneer and Volvo Cars have agreed to separate the Zenuity JV, allowing each company to focus on their strategic priorities

• Veoneer concludes the strategic review of its Brake Control business, classifies VBS-US operations as "assets held for sale"

Comments from Jan Carlson, Chairman, President and CEO

The spread of the coronavirus is first and foremost a global health crisis and our thoughts go out to everybody around the world suffering from its consequences. For us at Veoneer, health and safety is our first priority and we are taking the necessary actions to protect our people and safeguard our operations.

During the quarter we managed to combine the needed health and safety actions with strong execution in our business. We improved in basically all areas under our control, despite lower business volumes. Our cash balance increased to $970 million, net working capital improved by $89 million, RD&E decreased by $25 million, and capital expenditures were down by $32 million. We have also quickly adapted our ways of working, as exemplified by transitioning 4,100 employees to work from home without technical issues. As a response to the crisis, we have reduced our workforce by more than 200 people and an equivalent to around 1,000 full time employees furloughed. While these decisions are hard to make, we will continue to take the actions needed to steer Veoneer through the crisis.

The good outcome of a very unusual quarter is the result of the sharp focus of all our employees on operations and adapting to the on-going crisis. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the entire Veoneer team for the dedication and strong contributions in this difficult time.

The strategic reviews first communicated in 2019 are now concluded and Veoneer will focus on building a world leader in hardware and software for collaborative driving in the safety domain. Through the split of Zenuity and the integration of more than 200 skilled Zenuity employees to Veoneer's Systems and Software Group, we will further improve our integration and full system capabilities in this area. The transfer of the brake control business to a well established automotive supplier allows us to fully focus on our core activities knowing that the customer and our people in brakes have a good new home.

2020 continues to be an important launch year for Veoneer and while the timing of certain customer launches will be delayed, our deliveries of new technologies to multiple new vehicle platforms are progressing well.

The balance we are seeking is, to make Veoneer more efficient and effective, handling the consequences of the crisis while continuing to strengthen the core technology and products of the company, so far we are on track. In 2020 we expect, despite the significantly lower than expected business volumes, to be able to meaningfully reduce our RD&E, net, operating loss and negative cash flow as compared to 2019.

This is a difficult time for the automotive industry, but thanks to the long-term efforts of the entire team, we are today a stronger, more focused company.This report is information that Veoneer, Inc. is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the EVP Communications and IR set out above, at 11:00 CET on Friday, April 24, 2020. 

Ray Pekar - VP Investor Relations, +1-248-794-4537 or ray.pekar@veoneer.com. Inquiries - Company Corporate website www.veoneer.com.An earnings conference call will be held today, Friday, April 24, 2020 at 13:00 CET. To follow the webcast or to obtain the phone number/pin code, please see www.veoneer.com. The slide deck will be available on our website prior to the earnings conference call. See also the Non-U.S. GAAP Financial Measures section on page 9 of this earnings release for further disclosures. 

Contacts:
Thomas Jönsson
EVP Communications & IR
+46-8-527-762-27
thomas.jonsson@veoneer.com

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