Citation
Since the announcement of our full-year 2021 results, the environment has significantly changed with the start of the war in Ukraine and Covid-related restrictions in China.
Our industry has again to adapt to a challenging environment generating new uncertainty, after two difficult years due to the pandemic and the shortage of semiconductors, whose effects are continuing to impact the automotive industry.
Even if the war in Ukraine should mainly impact activity in Europe, we have to adapt to this new disruption, whose duration and magnitude of impacts, as of today, remain uncertain.
The recent acquisition of HELLA, closed at the end of January, makes us stronger and more resilient than ever but it has also de facto increased our debt leverage. As part of our agile management of the crisis, we have decided to proactively negotiate with banks a temporary waiver on our debt covenant in order to increase our financial flexibility. In addition, we have also revised upward our planned asset divestment program to be achieved by the end of 2023.
Further to these measures, the Board of Directors has also decided to propose to our next Shareholders’ meeting to exceptionally suspend dividend payment in 2022.
Our full-year 2022 guidance for FORVIA (Faurecia + 11 months of consolidation of HELLA), that we release today for the first time, is based on a cautious assumption for worldwide automotive production of 74.2 million vehicles, reflecting the current low visibility, and nevertheless demonstrates the strong resilience of FORVIA.
We are more than ever convinced about the huge potential of profitable growth and value creation of FORVIA, accelerated by the acquisition of HELLA that enhances our advanced technology portfolio and generates significant synergies. We also strongly reaffirm our commitment to reduce indebtedness post-HELLA acquisition, taking all necessary measures to accelerate return to the planned deleveraging trajectory, even if the current context imposes some delay in 2022.