Pat McCann
Analyst · Bank of America Securities. Please proceed with your question
Thanks, Swamy, and good morning, everyone. First, I'll start with a detailed review of the quarter. Global vehicle production increased 2% in the quarter, driven by North America, which was up 14%, partially offset by China and Europe, down 5% and 1%, respectively. Our consolidated sales were $9.4 billion, up 4% from the second quarter of 2021. The increase was primarily due to higher North American vehicle production, higher assembly volumes, the launch of new programs and price increases to recover certain higher input costs. These were partially offset by the negative impact of foreign currency translation, lower sales in Russia, net divestitures, and customer price concessions. On an organic basis, our sales increased 12% year-over-year, representing a 4% growth over market in the second quarter. Adjusted EBIT was $358 million and adjusted EBIT margin declined 240 basis points to 3.8%, which compares to 6.2% in Q2 2021. The lower EBIT percent in the quarter was substantially due to higher net input costs. Other items that negatively impacted margin were operating inefficiencies and other costs at a facility in Europe, reduced earnings on lower sales in Russia, a favorable value-added tax settlement in Brazil in Q2 of last year, lower tooling contribution, and lower equity income. These items were partially offset by higher favorable commercial settlements, lower net warranty costs, and divestitures of loss-making entities. Equity income was down $19 million year-over-year to $25 million in the quarter. The decline reflects reduced earnings on lower sales and higher net input costs at certain equity-accounted entities and electrification spending in our LG JV. Our adjusted effective income tax rate came in at 24.9%, in line with our Q2 expectations, but higher than Q2 of last year. Net income attributable to Magna was $243 million compared to $426 million in Q2 2021, reflecting lower EBIT, higher interest expense, and a higher tax rate. Diluted EPS was $0.83 compared to $1.40 last year. The decrease is the result of lower net income, partially offset by a lower number of shares outstanding. The lower number of shares outstanding primarily reflects the impact of the purchase and cancellation of shares during and subsequent to Q2 of 2021. I will now review our cash flows and investment activities. During the second quarter of 2022, we generated $560 million in cash from operations before changes in working capital and invested $139 million in working capital. Investment activities in the quarter included $329 million for fixed assets, an $80 million increase in investments, other assets and intangibles and $2 million in public and private equity securities. Overall, free cash flow was $52 million in Q2. We also repurchased 212 million of our common shares and paid $130 million in dividends. At the end of the second quarter, our adjusted debt to adjusted EBITDA was 1.48 and our liquidity remains strong at $5.2 billion, including almost $1.7 billion in cash. Next, I will cover our outlook. We have held our production estimates in line with our previous outlook. And, we assume exchange rates and our outlook will approximate recent rates. Given recent currency moves, we now expect a weaker euro, Canadian dollar and renminbi for 2022 relative to our previous outlook. We have increased our expected ranges for BES, Power & Vision, Seating and consolidated sales, largely reflecting improved program mix, partially offset by the strengthening of the US dollar, in particular, relative to the euro. Our Complete Vehicle segment has also improved mix programs. However, this benefit is more than offset by our assumption of a weaker expected euro, leading to a slight reduction in the sales range. Interest expense has been reduced to approximately $80 million from approximately $90 million previously, primarily reflecting higher interest rates. And our expectations for the adjusted EBIT margin, equity income, tax rate, net income attributable to Magna and capital spending are all unchanged from our last outlook. And we have maintained our free cash flow projections in the range of $700 million to $900 million. In summary, our second quarter was in line with our expectations, and we anticipate stronger results in the second half of the year relative to the first half. Our sales outgrew weighted production for the quarter, and this is expected to continue. This is driving the increase in our outlook. We continue to focus on operational excellence, managing our costs and obtaining customer recoveries to help address the current challenges and our future. And we are making progress in our go-forward strategy. Thanks for your attention this morning. We will be happy to answer your questions.