VAN BUREN TWP. — The auto supplier Visteon Corp. (NYSE:VC) reported net income of $65 million or $2.11 a share in the first quarter of 2018, up from $63 million or $1.91 a share a year earlier. Revenue was $814 million, up from $810 million.
During the first quarter, global vehicle manufacturers awarded Visteon new business of $1.6 billion in lifetime revenue. The ongoing backlog, defined as cumulative remaining life-of-program booked sales, was $20.1 billion as of March 31, up from $19.4 billion at the end of 2017.
“Our strong first-quarter results provided a solid start to 2018, as we achieved year-over-year improvements in sales, adjusted EBITDA, new business wins and free cash flow,” said Visteon president and CEO Sachin Lawande. “Despite softness in global vehicle production volumes in the quarter, we recorded our 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA margin.”
The company said sales increased in Asia, driven by new product launches, offset by a decrease in sales in the Americas, primarily reflecting lower production volumes. On a regional basis, Asia accounted for 39 percent of sales, Europe 33 percent, and the Americas 28 percent.
Gross margin and adjusted EBITDA were impacted by favorable currency and a positive business equation, partially offset by lower production volumes and product mix. Business equation is defined as cost performance net of customer pricing.
First-quarter 2018 net income included a $17 million benefit in connection with a legal settlement. This benefit was partially offset by an increase in restructuring charges of $4 million and income taxes of $5 million. Additionally, 2017 discontinued operations, net of tax, included a gain of $7 million associated with the repurchase of the India operations. Adjusted net income, which excludes restructuring charges and discontinued operations, was $64 million or $2.08 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2018, compared with $57 million or $1.73 per diluted share for the same period in 2017.
As of March 31, Visteon had total cash of $526 million. Total debt as of March 31 was $382 million.
For the first quarter of 2018, cash from operations was $81 million, and capital expenditures were $44 million. During the first quarter of 2018, the company executed agreements to purchase $200 million of shares.
Visteon designs, engineers and manufactures cockpit electronics products and connected car solutions for most of the world’s major vehicle manufacturers. Visteon has about 10,000 employees at more than 40 plants in 18 countries. Learn more at www.visteon.com. A replay of the conference call discussing these results, related presentation materials and other supplemental information will be accessible in the investors section of Visteon’s website. To listen to an audio replay of the presentation, call (855) 859-2056 in the United States and Canada, (404) 537-3406 elsewhere. The conference ID for the phone replay is 9090348.