Sales increase significantly outpaces market growth

Autoneum increased its net sales in 2013 by 5.8% to 2’053.3 million CHF (2012: 1’940.9 million CHF). In local currencies and adjusted for divestments, there was a substantial 9.9% increase in net sales, which once again significantly outpaced the 3.1% growth in global light vehicle production. The sales trend in the second half of 2013 was better than estimated in the outlook from the past summer. This encouraging development coupled with the ongoing implementation of operational improvements and overall stable raw material prices had a positive impact on the operating margin in the second half of the year. As a result, the net profit for 2013 is expected to be higher than for 2012 in spite of the known one-time expenses of around 40 million CHF.

Autoneum, the global market and innovation leader in acoustic and thermal management solutions for vehicles, made further progress in a challenging market environment in 2013 and increased its net sales by 5.8% to 2’053.3 million CHF (2012: 1’940.9 million CHF). In local currencies and adjusted for the sale of the Italian subsidiary, sales improved by 9.9%. In addition to Autoneum’s global presence, the factors crucial to this success included participation in successful vehicle models and gains in market share. Autoneum’s technological leadership once again proved to be decisive for order acquisition from existing and new customers.

Sales growth in heterogeneous market environment
In 2013, global light vehicle production saw only a moderate increase of 3.1% to 84.0 million vehicles (2012: 81.5 million). Automobile production grew once again in North America (+4.8%) and Asia (+7.1% without Japan), but growth in North America failed to match the prior year. While production trended slightly positive in Europe (+0.3%), automobile production in the SAMEA market region (South America, Middle East, Africa and Russia) dropped by 0.9%. In contrast, Autoneum significantly outpaced the respective markets and increased its sales in local currencies in all regions. In the European market where demand was weak, gains in market share contributed to the sales growth in local currencies. In North America, the rise in sales is mainly due to market growth and delivery for high-selling models. New customer orders involving high production volumes contributed greatly to the strong sales growth in Asia. Also in the SAMEA market region, growth in local currencies noticeably outpaced the market thanks to sales increases in Argentina and Turkey.

The year-end financial statements and the 2013 annual report will be published at the media and financial analysts’ conference on March 19, 2014, in Winterthur.