Earnings Labs

Visteon Corporation (VC)

Q3 2008 Earnings Call· Tue, Nov 4, 2008

$108.24

-1.92%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Visteon third quarter 2008 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on a listen-only mode to prevent background noise. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. Before we begin this morning's conference call I'd like to remind you this presentation contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and condition, but rather are subject to various factors, risks, and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these statements. Please refer to the slide entitled 'forward-looking statements' for further information. Presentation materials for today's call were posted on the company's website this morning. Please visit www.visteon.com/earnings to download the materials if you have not already done so. After the speakers’ remarks there will be a question-and-answer period. (Operator instructions) I would now like to introduce our host for today's conference call, Mr. Derek Fiebig, Director of Investor Relations for Visteon Corporation. Mr. Fiebig, you may begin your conference.

Derek Fiebig

Management

Thanks, Christie, and good morning, everyone. Joining me on the call today are Don Stebbins, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Bill Quigley, our Chief Financial Officer. After the call, we’ll open up the lines for your questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Don.

Don Stebbins

President

Thank you, Derek, and good morning. During today's presentation I will review the company’s overall performance and then turn it over to bill for the financial review. On our second quarter call we discussed the fact that we anticipate a weaker back half of the year versus the front half. However though we may have called the direction correctly, the speed and severity of the change greatly exceeded our expectations and as a result we expect a very challenging fourth quarter and a full year 2009. For the third quarter 2008, product sales were $2 billion, down about $400 million from a year ago. This decline was primarily driven by plant divestitures, plant closures, and volume decreases, partially offset by favorable currency. In North America, we experienced significantly lower production volumes for both Ford and Nissan while European volumes, which were favorable in the first half of the year began to evidence some weakness. In Korea, Hyundai/Kia production was down significantly due to labor disruptions. And production in China was negatively impacted due to the Beijing Olympic Games. Gross margin for the third quarter was $43 million as our positive net cost performance, including the benefits of our restructuring actions, were offset by the lower production volumes. As you know, three years ago we set out to address 30 underperforming facilities. Through the third quarter we have addressed 28 of the 30 facilities, and expect to finish the remaining two by the end of 2008. The restructuring program will have been accomplished ahead of schedule, under budget, and with greater savings. However, in response to the collapse in production volume and current market conditions, we are implementing additional headcount reductions to better align our resource with market conditions. At the end of the quarter we had combined cash and availability…

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Don, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This slide provides a summary of our third quarter financial results. Product sales of just over $2 billion were $400 million lower than the prior year. And as Don discussed, divestitures and plant closures had a significant impact as did lower production volumes. Our product gross margin for the quarter was $42 million compared to $97 million a year ago. The reduction in margins is more than explained by lower production volumes in the quarter although we did realize significant positive net cost performance in the quarter. EBIT-R was negative $97 million for the quarter as compared to negative $33 million a year ago. Our net loss for the quarter was $188 million, which included $3 million of net un-reimbursed restructuring costs, and income tax expense of $31 million compared with $20 million in 2007. Free cash flow was a use in the quarter of $236 million compared with $141 million in the prior year largely driven by lower EBIT-R, trade working capital, and restructuring cash flows, which I will discuss in further detail later. The following slide summarizes our year-to-date financial results. On a year-to-date basis product sales of $7.5 billion were lower by $471 million compared to a year ago. During the first half of 2008, sales were relatively even to a year ago with most of the decline occurring in the third quarter of this year. Despite lower sales year-to-date product gross margin increased by $100 million to $466 million. Gross margin in the first half of 2008 improved significantly reflecting our restructuring and cost reduction efforts. The third quarter benefited from those efforts as well but these improvements were more than offset by the impact of lower sales. Year-to-date EBIT-R of $32 million in 2008 has improved by…

Don Stebbins

President

Thanks, Bill. This is an incredible time in our industry and as we head into what will be an extremely challenging 2009 we at Visteon are fortunate to have both an extremely talented group of employees and substantial liquidity. We continue to aggressively restructure our company by reducing overhead, minimizing cost and maximizing the utilization of each of our facilities. We also remain focused on working capital and capital expenditures. Cash flow will continue to be the highest the priority for our company. We’ll now open it up to questions.

Derek Fiebig

Management

Christie, if you could please remind the callers how to get in queue.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Chris Ceraso of Credit Suisse.

Don Stebbins

President

Hello, Chris. Christopher Ceraso – Credit Suisse: Well, thanks. Good morning. Just a couple of things. First, the U.K. actions, this was a business that you mentioned was losing $100 million on $500 million of sales. Are you at the full run rate benefit yet from those closures or when will you get there?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, Chris, this is Bill Quigley. We’ve got a couple of things, one is obviously the Swansea transaction was completed early July, so if you think about it we still had the first half although we were under an agreement with our customers on reimbursement for training losses. So, Swansea effectively had a full run rate. If you think about the other agreements that we have in place, they were sporadic throughout the course of first half. We now have them locked in. I think we comments on the last call that our second quarter will probably be the first full run rate – or I am sorry, our third quarter is about $12 million per quarter. And Halewood, again it was a nominal business from a manufacturing profit perspective. So, again it shouldn’t really be on a year-over-year basis a big driver. Christopher Ceraso – Credit Suisse: So, short answer, by Q3, yes, you were basically–

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Q3, we should be in. Christopher Ceraso – Credit Suisse: Yes, okay. China, if China slows down, let’s say GDP in China gets cut in half and we run at 4% or 5% instead of 9% or 10%, can you talk about the impact on the Yanfeng business versus where it’s running right now and would it require any restructuring actions on your part?

Don Stebbins

President

Yes, I think in terms of the impact of that, we are starting to see a slowdown in China and probably for the first time we are seeing a situation where we have manufacturing employees being let go in that region. So we are – in terms of massive restructuring or larger restructuring, no we don’t see that happening, but certainly there is headcount that probably will come out in part not only due to the macro environment, but we are also driving a lot of change through those facilities and gaining significant efficiencies. So, no, in terms of an infusion of capital, I don’t see that as a need. Christopher Ceraso – Credit Suisse: Okay. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of John Murphy of Merrill Lynch. John Murphy – Merrill Lynch: Good morning guys.

Don Stebbins

President

Hi, John.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Good morning, John. John Murphy – Merrill Lynch: If you look at your Hyundai/Kia sales, I was just wondering if you could sort of break down how much of your product is going into vehicles that are made in Korea and then end up back in the U.S. and how many sort of are – stay domestic in Korea? So, I am just trying to understand with the strengthening of the won if there is a big hope–

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Right, Chris, I don’t have that right – or John, have that right in front of me. I can follow up on that, but if I think about Korean business, you’ve got obviously Halla, which is going to be servicing the local markets there. We’ve got operation in here Alabama, which is a smaller operation, quite frankly. So, I think the bulk of it would be actually within their own market, with limited exports outside of the market. John Murphy – Merrill Lynch: Okay.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

We’ve got – obviously got localization here. So, it’s really going to be more on the Korean market.

Don Stebbins

President

Yes, and as you look forward, I mean, that’s one of the opportunities – the customer’s directives is to try to localize as much as you can. So – but from Bill’s point, yes, there is still a fairly significant amount of exports out of Korea. So, we’ll have to get that for you. John Murphy – Merrill Lynch: Okay. Then on the free cash flow guidance on Slide 33, the $400 million plus or minus $25 million, that – does that include the restructuring cash from this year, which is $132 million year-to-date, I am just trying to understand that number.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, it does. John Murphy – Merrill Lynch: Okay. So, if we were to assume whatever cash restructuring we get, the – would execute next year, do you expect that sort of the operating portion of that to get significantly better assuming the volumes are going to be down but you are getting the benefit of your cost saves next year. I mean in I know that’s sort of – I mean it’s sort of – it’s sort of looking into next year, but could it get significantly better even with the tough environment we are looking at?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

I think if you look what we’ve accomplished (inaudible) what we expect to have accomplished through the end of the year, the cumulative savings are approaching the $400 million plus for that three-year program. So we are going to get to spill over, if you will, from actions this year into next year, which would be obviously a tailwind, obviously from a profit perspective. The uncertainty is around production volumes, quite frankly. And we continue to work through at those production volume at least the assumptions will be operating under – but obviously just from a restructuring itself, we won't have that type of a cash outflow. And it should provide, obviously, some upside again to a very jagged environment right now in production volumes. John Murphy – Merrill Lynch: Okay. And then on the F-150 launch, I was just—if you could remind us what kind of content on the F-150 and if there is – and if that launch is going according to plan after the initial delay.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

In terms of content, we have both climate and electronics content on it. In terms of the launch, once it’s – from our perspective it’s gone – it’s going as post the initial delay, yes, there is no issue there. John Murphy – Merrill Lynch: Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Skoglund of UBS.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Jeff.

Don Stebbins

President

Hello, Jeff. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: Hi, Don. Hey, just a follow-on on John’s question. The $400 million of saving, could you confirm how much you’ve achieved to-date and is it safe to assume the balance is going to be achieved in 2009?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, this is Bill again. By year-end, we would expect to have about $400 million cumulative posted, if you will, through the third quarter it’s about $360 million. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: Is that on a run rate basis or is that what you’ve actually achieved?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Cumulative. Achieved. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: So, when you talk about amounts spilling over into next year incremental to what was achieved in – to-date–?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Right. So, you are going to have actions this year that we’ve taken and not all of the actions occurred January 1st of this year. So you are going to get your rest of your benefit, if you will, your full year benefit into 2009. So, if you look at the outline I think of the restructuring actions over the last nine months, if you will, we are going to get some benefit of those actions into 2009. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: Can you quantify what’s incremental in 2009 versus what you achieved in 2008 or expect to achieve in 2008?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

That’s going to be – this year it’s going to be $40 million. Yes, $40 million. That’s not – but you have to remember that the salaried incremental, the salary headcount actions that we are taking now are not included in that $400 million. So, you are also going to get the benefit of that next year. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: Okay, thanks. And then on the cash, what you guys consider to be the minimum amount of cash that you actually need to run the business day to day, assume the intra-quarter needs are higher than the quarter-end needs.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Actually, as we’ve restructured the business over time, we obviously monitor the intra-quarter needs. The intra-quarter needs actually are becoming plus [ph] volatile, quite frankly. Given as we’ve sold businesses off, we are basically pulling the platform in more, if you will. We’ve stated publicly I think in the last couple of quarters that – at least I would be comfortable at a $700 million or so, but I don’t believe that really is what’s needed to run the business. If you set aside probably our Asian business, you got to look at North America and Europe together and our look at those two regions probably a comfort rate of about $550 million. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: And–

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

That’s cash and liquidity. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: Okay. And if you look at the cash balances at the end of Q3, obviously ForEx impacted in Q3, but is there anyway that you can mark-to-market kind of the ForEx net cash, may be I guess in other way what will be the – same way you can discus or quantify what the impact if you were to mark that to foreign exchange rates?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Jeff, did you say to market, we are having trouble hearing– Jeff Skoglund – UBS: No, I mean obviously the dollar is appreciating considerably, right, versus most currencies particularly in Europe. So, that would impact the cash (inaudible) negatively right?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Right. If you think about our cash balance, let me just give you some distribution a little bit. If you think about how we’ve got it allocated, well there is about $670 million in North America, $180 million in Europe, South America, we’ve got Asia Pac at $300 million. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: And last one the – on the pension. I might have missed it, but did you guys comment on what the year-to-date return has been on plan assets and I was wondering if you can maybe provide an update on what the asset mix there is.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, we actually, not in our formal comments, but we can kind of give you an overview of what we are at with respect to at least the U.S. plan. As we look through, obviously year-to-date asset returns have not been favorable if you will. At the same time, our discount rates or the current discount rate has helped quite a lot, quite frankly from a funding perspective. If we look at our U.S. plan funding level, recall, we ended 12/31/07 about 89% funded. If we look at kind of a 09/30 to even kind of mid-October it’s ranging in the order from 85% to 88% funded. So, it’s reflecting both obviously lower asset performance but at the same time, a lot it’s going to be dependant on the discount rate. So, as the rates have moved, it is lowering the PBO. So, on a funded level it’s actually held in fairly well in the U.S. side. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: Okay. Can you provide any clarity on the asset mix within the plan?

Derek Fiebig

Management

Yes, it’s – I haven’t seen or really disclosed that, probably, Jeff. This is Derek. We do have fixed income in there as well as equity. There is – we’ve got some LDI in there and a little bit of hedge funds as we’ve been migrating that plan over time. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: Okay. And Bill or Derek, if you look at the funding percentage, that 85% to 88%, is it safe to assume we shouldn’t see a significant increase in funding performance over the next year or two?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

I think presuming that level, yes, I don’t think will significantly change the funding requirements for ’09. And in fact your funding requirement is almost a year later, actually. So, it would really be more of an ’10 impact. Jeff Skoglund – UBS: Got it. Okay, thank you.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Nolan of Deutsche Bank. Patrick Nolan – Deutsche Bank: Hi, most of my question have been answered, but can you just – just a follow-up, you said the salary deduction is incremental to your previous savings. Is the Mexican restructuring also incremental?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, the Mexican in and of itself yes the Mexican restructuring is incremental to the three-year plan, if you will. But again in response two things. One was obviously identify efficiencies that our Climate group has been working on. At the same time just from response to the production requirement. Patrick Nolan – Deutsche Bank: And could you just comment on that a little bit particularly in Europe your appetite for taking more hourly heads out and whether – based on the (inaudible) next year is going to be temporary and you want to be in condition for any temporary recovery in 2010 or would you be more aggressive as far taking those heads out?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

We’ll be more aggressive. We’ll have to work with the labor unions over there with the workers’ councils, but we will tend to shade on the aggressive side of any discussion. Patrick Nolan – Deutsche Bank: Got it. And just lastly, the working capital assumption for the fourth quarter, is it going to still a pretty big positive like last year?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, it will be still be – it won't be the size of last year. Last year was $180 million plus. Obviously with the production environment it will still be positive, but it’s not going to near the $180 million. Patrick Nolan – Deutsche Bank: Got it. Okay, great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Brett Hoselton of KeyBanc. Brett Hoselton – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Good morning, gentlemen.

Don Stebbins

President

Good morning, Brett.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Hi. Brett Hoselton – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Let’s see, I will start with this one, commodities, can you give us a sense of the commodities impact? What I am really wondering is the impact of commodities you move into 2009, but can you give a sense of kind of the impact in the third quarter and year-to-date 2008 and then it’s probably going to be a headwind in 2009 or is that a mistaken assumption on my part?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Hi Brett, it’s Bill. I think as we’ve talked about over the last several calls, we’ve done I think a pretty good job working through the commodity environment. We are not a – the user, obviously of steel. It’s aluminum, it’s going to be copper in certain of our businesses and obviously resins in the interiors business. I think we work with the customers on various methods and alternatives given that commodity environment. So, again, we haven’t called out a whole lot of pressure, if you will, or upside on the commodity front. I think if you look at what’s going on in the commodity markets now, obviously they have been trending downward very quickly, quite frankly. But again, that’s going to be part of the discussions that we have as customers into 2009 as we realign agreements and other methods that we have to work through the commodity environment. I don’t see it necessarily as a – necessarily as a big benefit to Visteon. Brett Hoselton – KeyBanc Capital Markets: As you think about the free cash flow and as we move from 2008 into 2009, can you just give us a sense of what you consider to be the major pluses and minuses affecting that free cash flow as you change or mover from 2008 to 2009?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Well, without providing an ’09 number, I think– Brett Hoselton – KeyBanc Capital Markets: I don’t know like if you can quantify, I am just looking direct—

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, still working through it obviously. You are going to have – you’ve got a – that’s a lot of traditional things, Brett, right. It’s going to be – what happens on the working capital environment which is going to be driven, quite frankly, by the production as well as the supply base and our customer base. We’ve been basically I think done a great job in trade working capital. There is – I don’t think there is a whole lot, yet we can still wean out of that. Capital spending obviously is a focus. Don mentioned in his comments that we will be focused on in 2009. Our spend this year is estimated about $300 million. And obviously in ’09 we’ll be realigning capital plans, given the operating environment. What else is interesting, given the – we don’t seem – we don’t see the large inflow of – for the fourth quarter of ’08 in trade working capital compared to ’07. The flip side of that, production side is that we wouldn’t expect to see a real big use of cash and trade working capital in the first quarter. So, as productions come down, and continues to come down, we are not going to see the benefit, if you will, in the fourth quarter, but it shouldn’t be a huge headwind in the fourth quarter of ’08. Probably the last two items are going to be our OPEB and pension, cash contributions. Obviously to Jeff’s question previously, pension probably moves more into 2010 once you finalize the year-ends at least for the U.S. The U.K. obviously is a negotiated pension contribution of the trustees, and so we expect those actually to be lower compared to this year, 2008. As you will recall, we had some larger pension contributions scheduled for 2008 in our call, I am discussing in January that said we do not expect that to occur in 2009. Brett Hoselton – KeyBanc Capital Markets: Perfect. Thank you, Bill, that’s exactly what I was looking for.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Kirk Ludtke of CRT Capital Group Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Good morning, guys.

Don Stebbins

President

Good morning, Kirk.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Good morning, Kirk. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: I want a follow-up to Jeff’s question quickly, you mentioned that you thought your minimum liquidity was I guess I got a little bit confused – it was 550 or 700?

Don Stebbins

President

Yes, as we – we had stated in the past it was about 700, but as we’ve restructured the business, and as we look to the regions, I think the minimums – you always have to set Asia aside somewhat with respect to the free cash flow there. If you look at North America and Europe and what we’ve been able to accomplish there, we will look at a 500 plus liquidity position being an appropriate size for those two regions. It doesn’t say you are going to have cash in Asia. It just says that Asia necessary isn’t our focus. It’s more on the North American and Europe regions. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Okay. So, but that is a consolidated number, 550 million?

Don Stebbins

President

Yes. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Okay. And is that – that’s the quarter-end number or is that the mid-quarter number? I mean I – it sounds like you’ve got a pretty sizable–

Don Stebbins

President

(inaudible) intra-quarter volatility. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: That also – that’s a quarter-end number.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

No, that includes –

Don Stebbins

President

No, it’s the intra-quarter volatility for the business, the peak to trough, so to speak. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Okay. With respect to Slide 31, I just had a couple of questions on – you paid down the $37 million of debt and reduced a letter of credit by a like amount. Did that also increase the availability, the borrowing availability by a like amount?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, it would have, correctly, under the US ABL. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Okay. And was that debt that you couldn’t refinance or you just felt that it was the – it was positive net present value to do it this way or—

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, I think – if you think about it, I think the net drag to it was the negative carry as well as the cost of a duplicate (inaudible) LOC, so savings probably about $900,000 on an annual basis. And if you think about via the debt as well as a full LOC against it. So we took advantage of it. It really was pursuant to one of the restructuring actions that we announced earlier in the year with the Durant consolidation, our Nissan business. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Right. The cash went down, but your availability went up–

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Correct. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: What would be the – I mean how much of this should we expect going forward in terms of these kind of little miscellaneous debt repayments that you need to make or you –?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

There is some rolling debt. If you take a look at – if you could even take a look at our second quarter but those are basically our affiliate working capital line. Our next obviously is – significant maturity is the August 2010 stub of $206 million. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: So, really nothing – no miscellaneous debt. You are not going to have to use cash to pay down any kind of miscellaneous–?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

No – yes, nothing of significance. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: It looks like your fourth quarter EBIT-R guidance is a negative $57 million, does that sound right?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Correct. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Yes. And that includes a curtailment gain of $15 million?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes sir. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Alright. Is there anything in the comparable quarter in the – if you think about year-over-year comparisons, was there anything in the fourth quarter of ’07 – I remember there was–

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, we had a fairly significant curtailment gain, I think it was about $37 million or so related to our Connersville facility– Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: And that was also a gain?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes sir. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Okay. And then lastly, we are hearing companies increase their budgets for distressed supplier, cost, and trade support, and I am just curious if you are seeing any of that and if you can quantify it that would be great.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

In terms of the trade suppliers, it’s been fairly constant throughout the year, but as we look to ’09, we certainly do expect that to be a drag. And again, we’ll go through all of those assumptions at the (inaudible) conference in January. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Okay. And then lastly, given that everything has changed and the magnitude or the volume declines and – offset by your restructuring activities, what are the decremental margins in North America versus Europe for—

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

For Visteon, is it– Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Are they pretty much the same or would you–?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

I think if you think about our North American business, largely really an interiors and climate business. If you take a look at kind of our product groups’ segment results, the interiors business is not as – does not have the same profile as the other businesses. So, again that’s kind of the concentration we have in North America, is in the truck side of the business. So, we’ve seen a lot of it come through already, if you will, into 2008. So, obviously Western Europe is – at least in our opinion has got a higher profile or higher margin profile. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: So, the – so the contribution margins would be higher–

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, higher. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: – in Europe than they are in North America?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Kirk Ludtke – CRT Capital Group: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Patrick Archambault of Goldman Sachs. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Hi, yes, good morning.

Don Stebbins

President

Good morning. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Yes, I guess first on I guess on slide 29, the year-to-date EBIT-R look, can you just remind us of what the – I guess you had a $54 million tailwind year-to-date from currency. Can you just remind us how to think about the margin on that going forward and is there any reason – what is that – what does that translate into for a margin year-to-date and how do we think about going – of that in – going into ’09 obviously when currency might go against us?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Let me try to—I think on Slide 29 obviously you’ve got your year-to-date EBIT-R, so you get the positive currency of $54 million. I think if you look at the third quarter at minus $7 million that’s kind of at a rate as we close out the third quarter what – 38 buck 39 on a euro basis where you’ve called the forecast $1.32 at least on a USD to euro. So, again I don’t think you can look at it year-to-date. It’s probably more of a run rat on the third quarter. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Fair enough. And can you just–

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

And we ended the second quarter $1.55 I think the USD to euro was. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Okay. And can you just remind us – and it’s probably here somewhere, but what currency added to sales then year-to-date or excuse me year-over-year for the third quarter?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Year-over-year? Yes, if you take a look at the slides previous product sales of 419 I believe. If you look at Page 19 year-to-date was $419 million. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Okay. So, relatively small impact from a margin perspective I mean is there a reason we shouldn’t expect that to hold on a go-forward basis?

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

No, I think that’s a reasonable assumption, actually. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Okay. And I guess I mean just on why year-to-date was it such a positive impact and all of a sudden I guess in the third quarter it seems that the impact was kind of de minimis.

Derek Fiebig

Management

Yes, this is Derek. As we explained on the second quarter call, Patrick, we did have some things that were not hedged. We put some hedges in place at the end of the second quarter. So that’s really what you saw in the first half of the year in terms of currency. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Okay. And I take it these hedges last into 2009, which is why you think that you are going to be relatively protected from any sort of EBIT – big EBIT swings from that.

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

Yes. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Okay. I guess just on 26 – one quick housekeeping item, the $23 million Escrow receivable, so is that the restructuring that you paid out of Visteon’s cash balance and that you are going to get a refund from the Escrow Account, so–

Bill Quigley

Chief Financial Officer

No, that would be – that is – those are charges taken in the latter half of third quarter largely related to the census actions that we are taking. So those outflows and again the receivable is on our books at 09/30. It’s been submitted obviously to the Escrow Account for reimbursement. We will receive reimbursement in the fourth quarter and obviously with the separation actions that we are taking, we would expect to have outsource [ph] as well in the fourth quarter. So, again we haven’t had the inflow nor the outflow largely for that charge. Patrick Archambault – Goldman Sachs: Okay. Great, thank you. That’s all I had.

Don Stebbins

President

Okay, normally at this time we generally ask for one last question. Instead, today, I’d like to take these final few minutes to acknowledge someone who has been a staple on these calls – for many, many years and in our interaction with you for the past seven and a half years. Derek Fiebig, our Head of Investor Relations, has informed us that he has accepted a position with another organization, which is a great opportunity for Derek and his family. Derek has been with Visteon since 2001 and those of you who have worked with him over that time know, as we do, that he is a consummate professional who has worked tirelessly to support this company and to make sure you have all the information you need. We appreciate every thing Derek has done for Visteon and I know that you all join me in wishing him the best of luck as he moves on to this new opportunity. I am also pleased that Steve Ward will take over from Derek as Director of Investor Relations. Steve has been with Ford and Visteon since 1989 in a variety of financial roles, including controllership and treasury responsibilities, and I am sure that you will enjoy working with him. Derek will remain with us a while longer as we wrap up the activities related to the quarter-end. And now, I will turn the call over to Derek.

Derek Fiebig

Management

Thank you, Don, for your kind words. I’d like to express my appreciation to you, to Bill Quigley and to Mike Johnston for all your guidance and support over the years. Visteon is a rather complicated company to present to the financial community, but all of your understanding of the business, financial acumen, and willingness to enhance disclosures has made the Visteon story much easier for me to communicate to the Street. The progress Visteon has made in diversifying its customer base, restructuring the Company, addressing its capital structure, and reducing cost, has been a tremendous effort, which I am certain will continue in the future. I am and always will be proud of the seven plus years that I have had as a Visteon employee. It’s been a tremendous experience for me and I’ve greatly enjoyed working with the talented group of people on the Visteon team. In addition, I’d like to thank Terry Gohl, Brian Casey, and Bill Robertson, and the other members of the team that has supported Visteon’s Investor Relations activities over the past 30 quarters. Don, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity back in ’99 to lead the Investor Relations efforts at Lear and I regret that I am quitting on you for a second time. As Don mentioned, the team and I will be New York next week to meet with a number of you and I am certain that you’ll enjoy working with Steve. It was a difficult decision for me to depart Visteon, but I was presented with an excellent opportunity for both me and my family. That concludes our call for today. Steve and I will be around for the rest of the day to answer your questions. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time. Good day.