August 1, 2007 -- Visteon Corp. on Wednesday reported a net loss of $67 million in the second quarter as it continued a multiyear restructuring plan and grappled with production cuts by North American automakers, including its largest customer, Ford. The loss compared with net income of $50 million in the same quarter last year. The Van Buren Township-based auto parts maker lost 52 cents per share for the April-June quarter, compared with a gain of 39 cents per share in the same period a year ago. Ten analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of 51 cents per share.
This year's results included $13 million of non-cash asset impairments due to the sale of its European chassis operations and closing a plant in Chesapeake, Va., as the former Ford Motor Co. parts operation reached the midpoint of its three-year restructuring plan. "Even with significant reductions in customer volumes in North America, we are making solid progress on improving our base operations through improved quality and safety and significantly reduced administrative costs," Michael Johnston, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "We are also diversifying our sales and growing the business, particularly outside of North America.
As of June 30, the company said more than half of its manufacturing and one-third of its engineering workers are in lower-cost regions, such as Asia. Visteon said it plans to have three-quarters of its manufacturing workers and half of its engineering workers in those regions by 2009.
Visteon said last year's results included $22 million of non-cash asset impairments and a gain of $8 million associated with acquiring a lighting facility in Mexico. It also reported a $49 million benefit in last year's second quarter as Ford paid retirement benefits for salaried employees at two former Visteon plants transferred to the Dearborn automaker. Its revenue was $2.97 billion, up from $2.96 billion a year earlier. Visteon has facilities in 26 countries and employs about 45,000 people worldwide.
"The second half of 2007 will continue to be a challenge as we face low production on a number of important platforms, particularly in North America," Johnston said in the statement. "However, we expect to show significant year-over-year improvement in our financial performance compared to the back half of 2006 as we benefit from the restructuring actions we have taken and other cost-reduction efforts."
Source: Associated Press Newswires
Source: Factiva
