Full Year 2020 HELLA GmbH & Co KgaA Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Akshat Kacker - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : Akshat from JPMorgan. I have 4, please. I'll keep it short and quick. The first one again, on Q1 trading. There are a couple of weeks to close the quarter. You said it is trending positively and OEM sales are expected to be down 10% to 12% in the first quarter. On those numbers, should we expect you to hit the lower end of your guidance range in terms of margin? That's the first one. The second one is on the automotive P&L for fiscal year '20. Can you tell us what lies behind the EUR 39 million in other income and expenses? The third one is on total CapEx. The number is down EUR 100 million to EUR 475 million for the full year. Do we still expect it to pick up to EUR 600 million? If yes, where is the incremental spend targeted at, please? And the last one, maybe for Dr. Breidenbach, a more medium-term question, when I look at your energy management and electrification portfolio, a lot of the growth comes from DC/DC, IDS, battery management systems and On-Board Chargers, and then we look at a new 48 volt portfolio as well a few years out. A few of your competitors, especially DENSO with Toyota, talk a lot about inverters on hybrids. Can you remind us where are you on inverters, whether on hybrids or high-voltage cars, please? Rolf Breidenbach - HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA - Chairman of Management Board, President & CEO of Hella GeschSftsfnhrungsgesellschaft mbH Yes. Thank you for your questions. I will start with the first one and the fourth one. And the second and third one will be handled by Mr. Schaferbarthold. So with regard to Q1, you know our Q1 is a weak quarter. Therefore, whether we would be able to reach the lower end of our guidance, this would be very, very challenging. Perhaps we come near to it, but it's perhaps a little bit too ambitious. With regard to the -- to our energy management portfolio, as you mentioned, we are currently putting all our investments into the DC/DC products, battery management systems, high volt, low REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. AUGUST 14, 2020 / 8:30AM, HLE.DE - Full Year 2020 HELLA GmbH & Co KgaA Earnings Call volt, On-Board Charger. We have, so far, not entered the market of inverters. It's -- we are ready to go. But due to the variety of goods, the business opportunity in all the regions at many customers, we haven't started to go into this business. It's a question of -- not a question of ability. It's a question of resource spreading. And therefore, we haven't started this business. Ulric Bernard Schaferbarthold - HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA - MD of Finance & Controlling and Member of Management Board - Hella GeschSftsfnhrungsgesellschaft mbH On the other income in auto, it's -- let's put it like, that technical number accounting related, we had a very -- with the cost reduction, we were able to manage the allocations between the different segments, we were not really able to do it to the right line items systematically. So normally, the biggest part of this number you would have -- you should have seen them in some other line items like SG&A but also partially within the gross profit. So overall, around EUR 20 million out of that should be allocated to different light -- line items, but we were not able to do it. So -- and you can see that if you look at the group results, the number is lower and comparable to the year-on-year impact -- to the year-on-year comparison. I have now to ask, Akshat, what was your third question?

Question: Akshat Kacker - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : And where is the incremental spend targeted out, please? Ulric Bernard Schaferbarthold - HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA - MD of Finance & Controlling and Member of Management Board - Hella GeschSftsfnhrungsgesellschaft mbH No, it depends. We will have then the CapEx, but sometimes the CapEx is then not already paid. So that -- the invoice is then booked and within the payables, but not paid out. So paid CapEx will be around EUR 550 million and EUR 600 million.