Press release
Record Sales
(Stockholm, Jan. 31, 2014) – – – For the three-month period ended December 31, 2013, Autoliv, Inc. (NYSE: ALV and SSE: ALIV.Sdb) – the worldwide leader in automotive safety systems – reported record consolidated sales of $2,352 million. Quarterly organic sales (non-U.S. GAAP measures, see enclosed reconciliation table) grew by close to 15%, exceeding our guidance for organic sales* growth of “more than 9%”.
The higher than expected organic sales* in the quarter led to record full year sales of $8,803 million and organic sales* growth of 7% compared to the “more than 5%” expected at the beginning of the quarter. The adjusted operating margin* for the quarter was 10.0%, exceeding our guidance of “around 9%”. For the full year 2013, the adjusted operating margin* was 9.2%.
For the first quarter 2014 we expect organic sales to increase by around 7%, and an adjusted operating margin of around 8%. The indication for the full year is for organic sales growth of around 5%, and an adjusted operating margin of around 9%.
Key Figures
For Key Figures summary table, please refer to attached file below.
Comments from Jan Carlson, President & CEO
“The growth in global car production in 2013 was stronger than anticipated at the beginning of the year. It is satisfying to see that, by executing our strategies, we managed to benefit from this growth, ending the year with a quarter of both record sales and double digit sales growth. I’m also proud that we during the quarter were able to return $200 million to our shareholders through dividends and share buy backs.
China is today the world’s biggest auto market and we anticipate that it will continue to grow at healthy rates. In 2013 we grew our Chinese business by over 25% and in the fourth quarter it grew by over 40%, a tremendous achievement. In 2014 we continue to invest for further growth as well as vertical integration in China, as Autoliv’s two biggest investments to date will both start their production, supporting the further expansion.
Active Safety is the other strategic focus area which stands out in 2013. The strong growth across the active safety product lines gives us confidence that we are well on track to achieve our active safety targets of half a billion dollars in sales in 2015 and an operating margin within our long term corporate target range in the next two to three years.
In 2014 our transition continues. We will have a year of high investments in order to support further expansion in the growth markets, partly through vertical integration. At the same time we are adjusting our global footprint to adapt to the changes in the market. We also continue to address our operational margin challenges in Europe and Brazil.
Through a combination of our growth strategy, focus on quality, and execution of the 2014 transition, we believe we will be able to achieve margin improvements beyond 2014.”
An earnings conference call will be held at 2:30 p.m. (CET) today, January 31. To follow the webcast or to obtain the pin code and phone number, please access www.autoliv.com. The conference slides will be available on our web site as soon as possible following the publication of this earnings report.