Cooper-Standard Holdings Inc Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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

Question: Mike Ward - Freedom capital - Analyst : Thank you. Good morning, everyone. When you look at your guidance and if you back out the fourth quarter, the upper end of that range gets you to that double digit margin that you've talked about. What needs to go right for you to get there? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Mike Ward - Freedom capital - Analyst : Okay? So, as we look through October and you were one month through the three and so you're confident with that guidance. And so again, you know, if we can get into that towards that upper end of the range, that would certainly be good momentum as you head into 2025. Yeah.

Question: Mike Ward - Freedom capital - Analyst : John as it relates to currency the last two quarters, you've had some pretty significant hits from FX as far as the headwind. Is there anything you can do to mitigate that? You know, is it relates to the impact on near term results?

Question: Mike Ward - Freedom capital - Analyst : Okay. And then just lastly on the, we're in a declining rate environment we've had a good step down. It sounds like a couple more coming. Do you have any flexibility with your debt to possibly refinance or make some changes as we go out over the next six to nine months?

Question: Mike Ward - Freedom capital - Analyst : Perfect. Thank you very much.

Question: Kirk Ludtke - Imperial Capital - Analyst : Hello, Jeff, John, Roger. Thank you for the call and all the detail. Appreciate it. Just maybe a follow up on the on the geographic conversation. A lot of angst about European based manufacturers, not your largest market. But can you expand on what you're seeing in your business in Europe? And also, are you, were you EBITA positive in both North America and Europe in the third quarter?

Question: Kirk Ludtke - Imperial Capital - Analyst : That's great to hear, Thank you. Slide 16. Then the new products, congratulations on the pace pilot awards. I'm curious if you could maybe quantify what those new products means. I mean, are they products that you know, allow you to stay ahead of the competition or are they products that allow you to take share and really drive the top line or is there anything you can say on those on that front? That would be interesting.

Question: Kirk Ludtke - Imperial Capital - Analyst : Great. Thank you. That's helpful. And then the CapEx guidance came down over the course of the year. Are you doing something differently or, was it to? So, you know, just you saw an opportunity, you took it and then also what's the CapEx run rate you think going forward? Is it materially different than it once was or the same? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Kirk Ludtke - Imperial Capital - Analyst : Great. Thank you. That's all very encouraging. Appreciate it. That's it.

Question: Brian DiRubbio - Baird - Analyst : Thank you. Good morning gentlemen. A couple of questions for me. Just going back to page 10. If you don't mind, I'm trying to level set the company's performance your year, excluding those commercial settlements of $30 million. Would it be fair to basically take down 2023 sales by 30 then 2023 Third quarter just EBIDA by $30 million to get more of an apples to apples comparison?

Question: Brian DiRubbio - Baird - Analyst : Got it. So that onetime payment was there. And are you getting any commercial settlements throughout the year this year? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies.

Question: Brian DiRubbio - Baird - Analyst : Okay, great. And then as we think about the implied fourth quarter guidance, what's going to be the main driver there? Is it gross margins? Are you see s and a cuts. Are you expecting any payments on four trucks just trying to wrap my head around the margin expansion?

Question: Brian DiRubbio - Baird - Analyst : Great, appreciate that. And then just to confirm you pay the cash coupon for all, you're paying cash coupon for all the notes outstanding currently including a payment that was made in the third quarter at the last day of the month.

Question: Brian DiRubbio - Baird - Analyst : Yes, sorry, I was, I was focusing on the 13.5.

Question: Brian DiRubbio - Baird - Analyst : Got it. I'm looking at Bloomberg and, clearly they're wrong on that. Okay. So that will hit all in December. Got it. And then just as you think about the structure being able to call it next year, if you think about the call premiums versus current coupons and what you can get, I mean, how much of a rush is, are you guys? And to get this refinanced, is this something that you would like to tackle early this year or do you see opportunities where you can, you know, work through this existing capital structure for another year and then look to refinance when maybe the whole premiums aren't as punitive.

Question: Brian DiRubbio - Baird - Analyst : Understood. Appreciate all the thoughts, Thank you.

Question: Ben Briggs - StoneX Financial, Inc - Analyst : Hey, good morning guys and thank you for taking the questions. A lot of mine got answered, but I'm going to take one more swing at it the fourth quarter, 2023 to fourth quarter, 2024 bridge. So, as I'm looking at the midpoint of your guidance here, I get to about, I think about a $62 million number for the fourth quarter that we should expect and that's up pretty materially versus fourth quarter of 2023. Can you give us a little bit more of a granular breakdown of exact of kind of exactly what the drivers of that are going to be.

Question: Ben Briggs - StoneX Financial, Inc - Analyst : All right. That's very helpful. Thank you for getting granny over there. And then the next thing that I wanted to ask and this is the only question I've got left. Are any of the cost cutting initiatives that you guys have undertaken in the you know, in recent history, which have obviously been very effective. Would any of those have to be unwound if there were material volume increases or are you guys still pretty, still, pretty nimble and able to ramp production, when necessary, maintain while maintaining these costs.

Question: Ben Briggs - StoneX Financial, Inc - Analyst : Yes, just, just wanted to double check. I appreciate it guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Okay.