Visteon Business report FY2009

Business Highlights

Financial Overview

(in million dollars)
  FY2009 FY2008 Rate of change
(%)
Factors
Overall
Sales 6,685 9,544 (30.0) 1)
Climate 2,535 3,135 (19.1) 2)
Electronics 2,171 3,276 (33.7) 3)
Interiors 1,920 2,797 (31.4) 4)
Other - 271 (-) -

Factors
1)
-Net sales decreased $2.86 billion year-to-year basis. The decrease was primarily due to product slow sales, consisting of a $2.66 billion. The decline included lower production volumes and customer sourcing actions in all regions, facility divestitures and closures, unfavorable currency primarily related to the Euro and Korean Won, and net customer price reductions.

2)
Climate
-Net sales for Climate decreased $600 million year-to-year basis. Lower vehicle production volumes and unfavorable product mix were experienced in all regions resulting in a decrease of $260 million. Facility divestitures and closures decreased sales by $57 million. Unfavorable currency, primarily driven by the Korean Won and the Euro, further decreased sales by $153 million, while net customer pricing also contributed to the decrease.

3)
Electronics
-Net sales for Electronics decreased $1.11 billion year-to-year basis. Lower vehicle production volumes, unfavorable product mix and customer sourcing actions combined to decrease sales $1.04 billion, primarily in Europe and North America. Another negative factor was unfavorable currency, largely related to the Euro and the Brazilian Real, while net customer pricing further reduced sales.

4)
Interiors
-Net sales for Interiors decreased $877 million year-to-year basis. Lower vehicle production volumes and unfavorable product mix in all regions resulted in a decrease, while facility divestitures and closures in the UK and Spain reduced sales.

Contracts

-During 2009, the Company won approximately $562 million of incremental new business and $593 million in gross rewin business. The Asia Pacific region accounted for 58% of the new business wins; North America represented about 25% and Europe 17%.

-In July 2009, the Company launched a virtual instrument cluster with a 12.3-inch full color TFT display on Jaguar Land Rover's 2010 Range Rover that was Jaguar Land Rover's first "virtual cluster" application and available as a standard fit on all derivatives of the new Range Rover. It was developed by the Company's engineering teams in Chelmsford, U.K., with support from its teams in the U.S. and software development from its Software Operations, India, and Software Technologies, France. (From a press release on July 27)

-In Dec. 2009, the Company announced to supply an air intake manifold for the 2-cylinder Nano by Tata Motors. The air intake manifold was engineered by joint ventures between Visteon and Tata AutoComp Systems Limited. The Company also said to provide the audio system that can be outfitted by the dealer. This system was developed jointly by the Visteon Technical Service Center in Chennai, India, and the Visteon China Technical Center in Shanghai, China. (From a press release on Dec. 15, 2009)

Restructuring

-In May 2009, the Company announced that the Company and certain of its US subsidiaries voluntarily filed petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. (From a press release on May 28, 2009)

-In March 2009, the Company announced that one of its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Visteon UK LTD, had been placed under the control of court-appointed administrators. Visteon UK consists of three manufacturing plants in Basildon, Belfast and Enfield. (From a press release on Mar. 31, 2009)

-In July 2009, the Company sold the remaining 80.0% of the shares in Halla Climate Systems Alabama Inc. (HCSA) in the US for 37 million US dollars to Halla Climate Control Corp. (From a press release on Aug. 13, 2009)

R&D

R&D Expenditure

(in million dollars)
  FY2009 FY2008 FY2007
Overall 328 434 510

R&D Structure

-In March 2009, Halla Climate Control (HCC) of Korea, a subsidiary of the Company, opened a testing laboratory in Shanghai, China. The laboratory develops air conditioning systems. (From a press release on Mar 2)

Product Development

New pulse count system for HVAC control
-In July 2009, the Company announced that it has developed a new pulse count system for automotive HVAC controls. The new system provides a reduction in wiring complexity and weight compared with conventional HVAC control solutions. The Company's technical centers in China and in India worked on implementing applications of this second generation of pulse count technology, which is scheduled for commercialization in mid-2010. (From a press release on Jul 22, 2009)

Technological Alliance

-In June 2009, the Company announced an agreement with Mobileye, Headquartered in the Netherlands. Two companies will jointly develop technologies that will control tomorrow's smart headlamp systems. One specific application of the combined technologies may include automatically switching between high and low headlamp beams. (From a press release on Jun. 3, 2009)

Investment Activities

Capital Expenditure

(in million dollars)
  FY2009 FY2008 FY2007
Climate 71 133 147
Electronics 42 68 89
Interiors 30 63 88
Other - 1 13
Corporate 8 29 39
Total 151 294 376

Investments Outside USA

<China>
-In June 2009, Jie Xi Si (Nanjing) Automotive Climate Control Co., Ltd.(JCS Nanjing), a subsidiary of Japan Climate Systems (JCS), opened a new manufacturing facility in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China. With an initial investment of 68 million RMB, JCS Nanjing will manufacture heat exchanger components in order to support the growing needs of Mazda China programs and Chinese automakers. Having the capacity to produce 800,000 evaporators, 300,000 condensers and 300,000 heater cores the new facility will provide these components with the Chinese domestic market and for export markets such as Japan and ASEAN countries. (From a press release on Jun. 19, 2009)