French car parts supplier Faurecia lowers 2021 targets

PARIS Reuters - French car parts supplier Faurecia lowered its main 2021 financial targets on Thursday, saying it was adapting them given the new forecasts for the global automotive market published by information provider IHS Markit last week.

Faurecia noted IHS Markit now estimates global car production at 72 million vehicles this year versus 76.8 millions previously, adding this sharp reduction was primarily attributable to a higher than expected impact from semiconductor shortages.

Faurecia's financial guidance for 2021 was explicitly based on the assumption of 76.6 million production units produced in the full year of the company, the company said.

Based on this new assumption of a 72 - million global car production, Faurecia now has full year sales of 15.5 billion euros $18.2 billion compared with a previous target of 16.5 billion Euros.

The group, who won a bidding battle to take control of German lighting group Hella last month, says its operating margin for 2021 from 6.0% and 6.2% versus an previous guidance of 7%.

Faurecia's net cash flow target, which the group had upgraded at the end of July, was also lowered to around 500 million euros, rather than a previous target of total exceeding that figure.

The revised 2021 guidance, adjusted to reflect the sharp reduction in global automotive production to 72 million vehicles in FY 2021, confirms Faurecia's strong operating leverage and effectiveness of resilience actions, Faurecia said.