Visteon Corporation (VC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Kick it off. Good morning. Thanks for joining us. My name is Luke Junk. I cover Vehicle Tech & Mobility for Baird. My pleasure to introduce you today to Visteon, as you probably know, is a technology leader in cockpit electronics for the automotive industry. We're happy to have Jerome Rouquet with us, CFO of the company for a discussion. Before we jump into Q&A, Jerome, you want to start with some comments.

Thanks for having me, Luke. Thanks for joining today. I'll give a quick introduction on Visteon for those who do not know the story. So, as most of you know, the automotive industry is going through a lot of transformation these days. It's impacting the powertrain, which is fragmenting as well as the cockpit. And the cockpit is becoming more digital, more connected and a key way to differentiate OEMs between themselves. So that's where Visteon is playing. We're playing in the cockpit today and the cockpit of the future. So if I look at what we are doing, we are a cockpit electronic supplier and we are essentially designing, manufacturing, instrument cluster -- digital instrument clusters, infotainment systems, CDC, which are cockpit domain controllers. We serve most of the OEMs globally. We employ 10,000 people, including 4,000 engineers, which show the dedication that we have to technology. Despite the challenges that we've seen in the auto industry recently, mostly related to EV volatility, China, changes in mix as well as some of the tariffs that have impacted some of us since the beginning of the year. We've been pretty resilient as a company. We have been able to increase margins year-over-year and had as well very strong cash flow generation throughout the year. We also have very strong bookings, which will be a great way going forward to resume growth in some areas. Mostly with new customers like Toyota, but as well in China, where we've won recently -- and I'll talk more about that high compute CDC system that is enabling AI. And we are also diversifying our sales into 2-wheelers as well as CV. So a lot of things going on at Visteon from a growth potential standpoint. From a balance sheet standpoint, we are -- we've got a strong balance sheet, and we have had a disciplined balance capital allocation investing in the business, mostly in technology as well as pursuing some bolt-on acquisitions and returning capital to shareholders. So that's a quick summary of who we are and what we're doing.

Okay. That's great. Why don't we start with the growth drivers. I want to talk about some of the product categories. Display certainly has been one of the great stories about 2025. Can you just talk about the line of sight to Display growth in 2026 and beyond? Again, the fastest product category this year. Should we expect that to sustain into the future?

Yes, absolutely. Display has been a fantastic story. And it comes down to the decision that we've made a few years ago to invest and double down on displays as some of our peers were, in fact, exiting that space. If you look at display, they are getting -- they are a great way to differentiate the cockpit for OEs and they've grown as a result of that for us, 25% year-over-year. Today, it's 13% product line out of our total sales. We have won a lot of business recently, close to $5 billion in the last 2 years and which represents close to 45% of our total business wins. We have 21 launches that have occurred between '24 and '25. And as a result of that, we'll see pretty nice growth in the years to come. We have high-profile launches like the OD panoramic display, the Renault Clio multi-display or the Ford Puma center display. So a great product line for us. Vertically integrating as well keeps us competitive in that space. And that's, again, another reason for us being successful in displays.

Yes. And it seems like CDC, that domain controller is going to be a bigger opportunity for the company into the future. Can we talk about some of the key launches and maybe just how meaningful the growth driver it could be into the next couple of years?

Yes. Absolutely. It's -- after display, I would say CDC is our next product line, which is poised to grow quite substantially in the next coming years. And if you step back, we do have today a fairly diversified portfolio from a CDC standpoint. CDC represent about 11% of our total sales. We have customers like Mercedes in Europe, Geely in China, Mahindra in India as well as 2-wheeler and CV customers like Harley-Davidson and Triton. So a very balanced portfolio. As we look into 2026 and forward, we have very high profile launches coming up with 2 HPC CDC, high-performance compute CDC that we won recently in China. We are launching them in the second half of 2026 with Geely and with Chery. And we won this -- Geely was won last year. Chery was won this quarter or this past quarter. And we are launching in the second half of next year. So that will give us a fantastic growth trajectory, especially in China. And we'll see some further ramp-up in '27 and '28. We also have 3 other launches that are coming up in '27, 2 European customers as well as 1 CV customer in '27, and therefore, the growth will accelerate in '28, '29. So display, the growth will start in '26 and then accelerate '27, '28. For CDC, it will be more end of '26 accelerating in '27, '28.

I think people are pretty familiar with kind of what has been the story in terms of cluster and with the transition to the digital cluster, there was a content lift there. Should we think that there's a similar opportunity with CDC. You mentioned that some of these high compute awards, especially are fairly rich in content?

They are. In fact, the 2 systems that we won recently, which we call high performance compute CDC systems are AI-enabled. So with this kind of system, you have the latest processing chips, you also have a pretty complex system. So in terms of ASP, we're talking about 3 to 5x the price of a normal CDC, so you're well over $1,000 in content in the car. So that is definitely an area that will allow us to improve and increase the content as we go forward. And I would say generally AI as well outside of China will ultimately be a content improvement absolutely.

We -- so you mentioned the relationship with Toyota. Can we just double-click on that. Certainly, display is an important part of that story. I think you've given us some figures on the path to the higher mix in a few years. Maybe if you could just double-click on the launch cadence there specifically?

Yes. So we started our relationship with Toyota early -- in early 2020. And it's been -- this relationship has been expanding since then. We've launched 2 programs this year, and we have another 5 programs that will be launching in '26 and then another 7 in '27. So you will see an acceleration of that growth with Toyota. We are planning to have Toyota representing a top 3 customer going forward in '28, probably representing something like close to 10% of our total sales. And if you look at the opportunity that we still have with Toyota, the way to think about it is to look at Ford. Ford for us is a major customer, 25% of our sales. And yet Ford represents only 1/3 of the Toyota volumes. So there is definitely tremendous opportunity to grow within Toyota. We have today or let's say, the businesses that we won with Toyota are mostly indexed on clusters. And the businesses that we won with Lexus are mostly indexed on display. So you have still tremendous opportunities to have further product line expansion within each brand. We also do not have some of the high-volume programs with Toyota like the RAV4, which would be a fantastic program to get. So Toyota has been a good story. It's growing and will be growing quite substantially throughout '28, and we do think there is further potential to expand with this customer.

We'll stay tuned there. I wonder if we can maybe talk about Asia more broadly as a region as well. I mean it seems like there ought to be supply chain benefits building up that scale position with Toyota. How can you leverage that with other folks in Asia? And maybe if we could look at India as a specific opportunity?

Absolutely. Asia generally has been a great opportunity for us, and it will be a great opportunity for us to grow going forward. Beyond Toyota, we are focusing on customers like Maruti Suzuki, which represents about 40%, 45% of the India market. We are focusing on Hyundai, Kia as well as on Honda. So these 4 customers represent today about 25% of the total car production in the world, and our sales with them are today less than 5%. So tremendous amount of growth in Asia as a result of this focus. 2-wheeler as well, and that's mostly India, but as well Japan will be a good growth opportunity for us as we are tapping more into that market, which is becoming similar to the car, very much digitalized, connected. And I'm not sure about AI yet on the 2-wheelers, but that's definitely a market that is growing for us. So Asia, with these customers, these segments will grow going forward. And it's going to be largely us resuming growth in China as well as continuing growing in India.

Speaking of China, I mean, certainly, that's been one of the challenges for the industry broadly, the customer mix change in China and for Visteon as well. How confident are you that China is at a bottom right now? How do you think about sort of the risks and opportunities into next year? And do you feel differently today about China than you did even, say, 6 or 12 months ago?

Yes. It's -- we think we have turned the corner with China, and we've had headwinds in the last 3 years, similar to what other peers have seen largely because of the mix change. For us, China today represents about 8% of our sales. We have between now and the end of Q4 as well as the end of '26, close to 20 launches that will happen in China. The 2 highest profile ones are the ones I talked about, which are Geely and Chery with HPC CDC systems that are enabling AI in the car. And they'll be launching in the second half of 2026, growing into '27 and '28. Beyond that, we also have some launches with international OEs, mostly the Germans and the Japanese. And we have a few product launches like CDCs, displays and clusters that will help us as well in '26 and '27 to grow in China. What is interesting as well is that a lot of our growth in China is going to be on the D and DE segment, which is a segment where -- that is expected to grow per industry expectations into next year and like the lower-level segments where we are less indexed. So we see a good dynamic as well from that standpoint. Overall, China will grow. There will be some seasonality. As you know, Q1 tends to be a little depressed versus Q4 in general. But overall, we are confident that -- we've done the corner in China. So a very different picture.

What about what you can control internally in terms of attacking the China market, certainly moving China speed is something that I think the investment community has gotten a lot more familiar with. As I think about Visteon, it's really 2-pronged proposition. It's the hardware side and it's the software side. Can you kind of speak to where we are right now on most of them?

Speed is a critical factor as you win. But -- not only this, you need to have the right technology in China and the right cost structure. So the fact that we've won these 2 HPC CDC system in the last few quarters is for me a testament of our capabilities. And if you think about it, these capabilities on CDC started with our platform approach a few years ago, and we've been able to leverage that. We're able to compete in China. We are recognized as a very serious competitor. And it's largely due to that platform approach that allows us to be very well -- into very well positioned from a technology standpoint as well as having the right cost structure as well as the right quality. So that's the reason -- these are the reasons why we were able to win these 2 systems. If you look as well at Visteon and our CDC story, generally, we were -- if you remember, we were the first ones to offer CDC back in 2018 with Mercedes, we'll be the first one now to launch 2 CDC systems that are HPC with AI-enabled. So again, we are at the forefront of innovation when it relates to CDC's.

What about working with local OEMs outside of China? It's something that's been sort of discretionary in the industry the last couple of years. It feels like it's maybe becoming more real. What are your thoughts?

It is. We had our first win in Q1 with Chery. In fact, Chery was not even a customer in China, and we were able to offer them a competitive offer in terms of technology, price and quality in Europe. So we see us being very well positioned to offer the right structure for Chinese OEMs to go into Europe, go into as well South and Central America. We offer a very regional footprint. Most of our plants have got pretty high technology levels with vertical integration as well. So we are able to offer them, if I can say, the full package, still at the Chinese speed, which is important, given that the launch is -- cadence are pretty short in most of the cases.

Let's switch to your investment posture. I guess you mentioned some of the investments in displays that you've made. But how should we think about where you're looking to incrementally press the advantage in cockpit electronics over the next couple of years?

Yes, display, as we've discussed, has been a great story, and we see a path forward to continue to grow in this area. CDC has been really the area we've been focused on in the last few quarters, in the last few years. I think the major change in the CDC space is going to be the fact that AI will come in. And we see that already as a reality in China, where we have, again, these 2 launches that are coming up next year. Visteon has invested heavily in the last few quarters on AI technology. We've presented at CES, our cognitoAI system, which essentially facilitates the interaction that the car driver or the passengers will have in the car as opposed to have a reactive car, you'll have an interactive car, an interactive cockpit going forward. So that's where we see a lot of development going forward. It's happening in China next year with these 2 first systems. And we've been in contact with OEMs in Europe and the Americas, and it's going slower, but we are hopeful that there will be some movement at some time in the future.

What about competition for RFQs. As you mentioned, the awards have been really strong this year. I mean, there's been certainly some turbulence at some of your competitors. Do you think that's playing a role just in terms of relative investment capabilities across the industry?

We had a very strong year-to-date September. We are on track to have more than $7 billion in new business wins. It's been mostly thanks to displays. I must say, 50% of our wins have been with displays. And I think what's happening with some of the OEs, they are taking time to rethink their architecture. But at the same time, don't have the luxury to wait on the cockpit side. So that gives us a tremendous advantage, especially on display, where we can differentiate their offering with specific size, specific shapes. And again, the fact that we have invested heavily on display has played to our advantage. So again, differentiating is the key for OEs. And as much as some content has been a little bit deemphasized in some of the areas of the car, we think that the cockpit remains very content-driven and we'll probably see further increases as we go forward.

So if we pull that together, I mean, award strength, like you said, not only has it been strong this year, but that trend has been growing if we look at cockpit electronics specifically over the last 5 years or so. We've talked through some of these launch cadences through 2028. If we put a marker out kind of 3 to 5 years from now, either in dollar terms or sort of guardrails for outgrowth. What would you suggest folks should be thinking about as a reasonable target?

So we'll give more detail, obviously, at our Q4 earnings call, we'll give guidance going forward. But what I can say at this point is that we are expecting to have growth over market. That's one of the key indicators that we are following in the mid-single digits as we go forward with potential acceleration as we go towards the end decade. So as we've talked about during our Q3 earnings call, there's a lot of things to like about '27, but I think there's even more about '27 and '28. So we'll see some acceleration as we go forward. Thanks to these wins, which are, I would say, if I summarize, growing again in China, growing with underrepresented customers today, for example Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Hyundai, Kia as well as expanding in areas like CV and 2-wheelers. We are also mostly through acquisition, but we are planning to organically grow going forward on the engineering service side.

Let's shift to the macro supply chain, certainly an area of impact in 3Q reporting, whether it be JLR, [indiscernible] Ford, as we know a major customer Nexperia as well. Maybe if you could just update us quickly on each of those things.

So we talked about a $30 million to $40 million impact going into the second half related for us to JLR and the Ford supply issue -- aluminum supply issue. JLR is about $25 million of a headwind for us, 50% in Q3, 50% in Q4. We saw obviously no production in September and JLR has resumed production in mid-October. It looks like it's on track. So not much to add on this side. On the Ford aluminum issue, we highlighted during our earnings call that Ford would impact us to the tune of $5 million to $15 million, and that was predicated at the time on about 20,000 to 50,000 cars being impacted at the Ford level. Since then, Ford has come up with official numbers, and they talked about 90,000 to 100,000 in terms of production impact. And therefore, our impact is going to be probably another $10 million higher versus what we had talked about during our earnings call. In terms of Nexperia, I think everybody is following very closely the news. It looks reasonably positive. There's been some favorable development on that side. So we are hopeful that things will get resolved. We still see this as a risk as supply chain has been challenged in the last few weeks. And therefore, there still may be some disruptions. We've heard a few OEs like Honda, for example, being severely impacted. So we need to stay tuned on that topic.

We'll stay tuned there. As you think -- obviously, we'll wait for the 4Q report in terms of specific guidance, but 2025 year, just from a industry backdrop, I think the trend has been less bad, generally speaking. As you look into next year, what do you see as sort of the glass half full, glass half empty elements? And do you care that much about vehicle mix into next year?

We do. And in fact, we are still waiting to see how S&P will revise their numbers given some of the disruptions that we are seeing in Q4. So it's a little too early probably to give some numbers for the global production as we go into next year. Today, S&P is planning a 3% to 4% vehicle -- negative vehicle production for Visteon. But as I said, we'll have to see how that evolves. We are more focused, I would say, in the near term on growth of the market, and that's where we'll be focusing our efforts.

I want to talk about the margin story. I mean, certainly, it's been one of the really important components of the Visteon story, not just this year, but over the past several years. One of the pieces there has been operating costs and product costs. It seems like there's an evolution where there's maybe some product cost opportunities in the next few years. Just how should we size that opportunity? And one of the things that you're really focused on incrementally?

Yes. So we've -- my view is that there are no silver bullets. And -- but it's true that in the early days, after '19, we started to focus very much so on our fixed cost structure. So by that, I mean SG&A engineering costs as well as manufacturing cost. And that has given fantastic results. We were able to grow our margins from '19 to 2025, from 7.9% to almost 13%, 12.5% if you normalize with one-timer. So that cost structure rationalization has been very good -- a very good thing for us. We've been in the last few years, maybe in the last 2 years, increasing our focus on product costing. And that is what has sparkled our initiatives on vertical integration. As a way to bring more value in-house as well as control the technology that we are playing in. So there's more to come on this side. We are still in the early stages of vertical integration. We are talking about more bonding on the display side. We are looking at backlight unit integration as well. We are looking at more magnesium injection, which are the frames that are being used to be able to hold the displays, which are getting larger and larger. So therefore, having magnesium is critical. So a lot of initiatives are going on in this field as well as purchasing initiatives. So we still think there are margin points to gain as we go forward.

You mentioned the margin this year, excluding those onetime customary recoveries. They've been, I guess, I term them recurring, nonrecurring recoveries in the sense that we've seen them, I think, every quarter this year. Maybe not so much on the recoveries themselves, but I'd be curious if you could speak to sort of the organizational structure that's giving rise to this because I think it maybe speaks to the finance organization that you've built.

Yes. So I think it's been a cross-team effort, I would say, on the front line, the sales team is definitely the one that has done a fantastic job on this side. We have been able to get new business wins as well as recover from customers. So it's a fine balance. Obviously, that's got to be managed, but it's one of the key strengths, I think, of Visteon, we are very disciplined commercially as well as operationally and that pays off.

What about AI? Are you using AI internally at all? Or could that be a future opportunity?

Absolutely, yes. So it's obviously top of mind in our products, but as an organization as well, AI is everywhere now as we go forward. One very important area we are focusing on is engineering. Cost structure was one key driver for improving our engineering structure, cost structure. We've spent a lot of time on platform and now are moving more into productivity with automation and AI, making sure that codes are supported by AI. It helps defect Triage, for example, and can help us being more efficient. So still early days on that topic, but we are making good progress, and we think that will be a fantastic opportunity as well.

Yes. Lastly, capital allocation, I think you mentioned this. I just want to put a finer point on it. You've done a few of these, I guess you call them engineering services, acquisitions. Like should we expect any more of those? Or is now the focus is going to shift to more of an organic focus?

Right. We are -- we've done 2 acquisitions, 1 last year, 1 this year, and they've been quite successful. They are engineering services companies, and we are planning to grow them organically from there. They have, in most cases, 2 or 3 customers. And if we can expand their customer base with our relationships, we should be able to grow. At the same time, we're continuing to look for further acquisitions, not only in the engineering service field, but as well in any other area that could be accretive from a technology standpoint in the cockpit.

Last question, just share repurchase. I think you've got a $300 million program that you're executing right now?

We have -- we've hinted in Q3 that we would be buying between 20 million and 30 million worth of shares in Q4, and we're on track for this quarter. So we'll keep on this side.

Okay. Well, we're out of time, unfortunately. So we'll leave it there. Jerome, really appreciate the presentation.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Luke. Thank you.