HELLA GmbH & Co KgaA Q1 2021 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 JP Morgan. Three from my side, please. The first one a follow-up on end markets. You mentioned that the outlook for the coming months is positive. Can you just give us more details on what regions drive this optimism? And what regions have turned out to be better in the last few months? And how much visibility do you have at this point maybe until November? And can you also confirm if September is already back to growth? That is the first one. The second one, again, on automotive gross margins. I can understand the impact from low capacity utilization and ramp up from low activity levels. But as we look into Q2 can we already think about comparable levels to last year? Or should we be mindful of any special COVID-related costs or startup costs for the number of ramp-ups that you're talking that are still remaining for the rest of the year? The third one is the dividend income from JVs. You generally get, I think, around EUR 25 million in the first quarter from those JVs. What are your expectations for the year? Or is it just a timing impact? And do you expect some inflow in the second quarter? Ulric Bernard Schaferbarthold - HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA - MD of Finance & Controlling and Member of Management Board - Hella GeschSftsfnhrungsgesellschaft mbH So on current trading, if it comes to volumes now, September, as Mr. Breidenbach said was, from our perspective, very strong -- close, I would say, to previous year's levels. So perhaps the slight growth we will see. We also see a strong demand now in the -- especially upcoming 2 months. So this is basically visibility until end of November, is from our perspective now good and on high levels. It starts from our perspective, from December onwards to be more at risk and at least where we see still -- I would say, where we are not absolutely clear now how OEMs now would -- when they would start to go into Christmas break. So let's see. It's -- this is at least where we now see risks starting and visibility being, by far, lower. Regionally, we -- I think all 3 regions are improving in the -- we can say that if we look at now at September and also the next 2 upcoming months. So from our perspective, good demand on all customers, so German OEMs, but also our U.S. and Chinese customers show at least -- or have -- quite high demand now within our system. Gross margin with higher sales should improve. So if really we can then be also at previous year level, also depends a little bit on product mix at the end also of the quarter. So this is difficult really to foresee, but we should from my perspective, see an improvement also to the first quarter. On the dividend, we had already one larger dividend payment in the last quarter. So in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year. So for HBPO, this dividend was paid out earlier in comparison to last year where it was in first quarter. So that is already realized. And so that -- and on top of that, we also had some difficult, I would say also difficult business situations, also within our joint ventures. So decisions on dividends have not all been taken yet. So we do not expect any big dividend payment now in second quarter.