Mark Wallace
Analyst · Andrew Kuske with Credit Suisse
Thank you, Cyrus. Good morning, everyone. As a reminder, Clarios is the world leader in low voltage batteries, powering one in three vehicles globally with unmatched scale and geographic reach. We are five to six times larger than any of our nearest competitors and we're only the true global player. We have the number one market position in the Americas and Europe and are currently number three in Asia. To put this in context, we ship over 150 million batteries per year. And when the business was acquired by Brookfield, EBITDA was approximately $1.6 billion. We set a record year of earnings in fiscal 2021 and we continue to make strong progress in fiscal 2023 and plan to exceed $2 billion of EBITDA over the next few years. And depending on how much we reinvest in the growth, the business should generate at least $500 million or more of free cash flow each year. Approximately 80% of the volume is driven by the high margin resilient aftermarket demand. We're also the go-to partner for virtually every automaker in the world, and in many cases have majority share, bringing the right levels of technology to solve for their challenges of today and the future. An important point to remember is that every single car, whether a full battery electric, hybrid, start/stop, our internal combustion engine requires a low voltage battery like the ones we sell. The demand placed on these low voltage batteries continues to increase with a shift toward electrified vehicles. Clarios is the leader in enabling technologies for electric and autonomous vehicles with a full portfolio designed to support our customers' growing needs. We’re now partnering with over 130 electric vehicle platforms globally, including over 80 new full battery electric platforms launches during the last 12 months. This puts us more than halfway toward our goal of winning over 200 full battery electric vehicle platforms within the next five years. The automotive industry is rapidly transforming to help the world achieve its carbon reduction targets. We believe that by 2030 nearly 90% of all new vehicle production will represent some form of new energy vehicle from start-stop, hybrid, or full battery electric vehicles. Even more important, we estimate that nearly 1.6 billion cars in the park by 2030. Over half will offer new energy features to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, leading to an increased power demands on the low voltage system, and driving double-digit growth of advanced low voltage batteries to serve these expanding needs. This shift in technology represents a significant tailwind for our business today and long into the future as these new energy vehicles enter the aftermarket for multiple battery replacements. In fiscal 2022, 24% of our total units sold represent advanced batteries, which is up more than 2 times from only 10% in 2015, and we expect this growth trend to continue. By 2027, we expect 35% of our total battery volume will be advanced. This tailwind will continue to be a source of revenue margin expansion for years to come as advanced batteries drive 50% to 80% higher revenue and double the profitability dollars of a standard low voltage battery. We continue to invest in capacity to serve these growing advanced battery needs. To date, Clarios has deployed more than 50% of the world’s capacity for AGM advanced batteries, and we’re adding more as we speak. Investing over $500 million in North America and Europe through 2025, in addition to leveraging the startup of our new state-of-the-art plant in China. We’re also expanding our portfolio to meet the growing requirements of new vehicle platforms, including full battery electric vehicles where we have recently launched our first fully branded product strategy Clarios xEV. Clarios xEV batteries tailored to each automaker’s electrified vehicle load requirements will work hand in hand with the high voltage traction battery to provide the right power as well as the right levels of functional safety. This portfolio supports batteries for automakers now, but also positions us to prepare our aftermarket customers for the future. As part of this portfolio, there are some automakers looking for low voltage lithium ion solutions. Today, we are a leader in this space with an application for a global automaker on multiple platforms. Leveraging our global capabilities as well as our 15 years of lithium ion software and systems expertise, and actively working with OEM customers to develop their future requirements. We also develop a brand new technology called Smart AGM. There is nothing like it in the world. Smart AGM is designed to reduce internal failure, provide continued power supply, and monitor the powertrain battery performance in real time. Smart AGM also allows for predictive maintenance in the aftermarket. One of the most interesting applications where we are seeing significant customer interest is in truck fleets where battery failures is a top cause for truck downtime. In addition to our advancements in new technologies, we are growing our presence in new markets including China. China is already the largest auto production market in the world, and more importantly, the largest EV market representing more than two-thirds of the global battery electric vehicle production in 2022. With a full launch of our third Chinese plant, we will represent more than half of the installed AGM capacity in the country and expect to double the volume of our China platform in the medium-term. Our global market leading position and value-added customer relationships have enabled us to implement significant pricing actions and offset the unprecedented levels of inflation. In addition, we continue on – our focus on driving margin expansion through operational excellence and cost reduction discipline. To date, our team has achieved approximately 60% of the targeted $400 million of operational improvements in the business on a gross basis. This year, we are tracking to achieve an additional $50 million in cost savings driven largely by the enhancements of our U.S. operations as we realize the benefit of investments in automation and the optimization of transportation, supply chain, and overhead cost to drive performance and productivity. Overall, it’s an exciting time for Clarios. The rapid transformation to new energy vehicles creates a significant tailwind for our business. As we invest for the future, our earnings and cash flow will continue to grow. We are primed for sustained and profitable growth through our advanced technology portfolio, durable cash flow generation position, and a leading global market position. With that, I’ll hand the call over to Jaspreet and I’ll be available to answer questions during the Q&A session.