Adient (ADNT) Q2 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptMay 7, 2026
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DATE
Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET
CALL PARTICIPANTS
Chief Executive Officer — Jerome Dorlack Chief Financial Officer — Mark Oswald Vice President, Investor Relations — Linda Conrad
Full Conference Call Transcript
Jerome Dorlack: Thanks, Linda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us to review our second quarter results. Today, we will focus on the quarter's solid performance and provide an update to our fiscal year 2026 outlook. Overall, Q2 results came in line with our expectations, reflecting typical seasonality in China and some temporary production inefficiencies on a few key programs. Despite that, revenue was up 7% year-over-year, driven largely by FX tailwinds with underlying growth in both the Americas and Asia. Adjusted EBITDA was down modestly year-over-year, reflecting temporary mix, launch costs and customer-driven inefficiencies, partially offset by favorable FX and SG&A.
Free cash flow in Q2 reflected the normal seasonality of the second quarter, and we ended the quarter with a cash balance of $831 million and $1.6 billion of liquidity. Given normal cash flow seasonality and the increased geopolitical uncertainty, we paused stock repurchases during the quarter, consistent with our approach last year. Turning to growth. We continue to aggressively pursue new business in all regions. In the Americas, more OEMs are announcing their intention to onshore production in the United States. We are working with our customers to capitalize on these opportunities as their plans materialize. We have also won significant conquest programs in South America and China.
And in China, our growth over market remained strong despite the overall production volume challenges in the region. Finally, as we look beyond the quarter to the full year, based on what we know today, we are increasing our guidance modestly for revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. Favorable volumes and strong business performance are being muted by $35 million of expected input cost headwinds, which Mark will outline further in his remarks. Turning now to Slide 5. While I just noted that Adient is raising guidance slightly for fiscal year 2026, we acknowledge that the overall macro environment remains volatile.
The ongoing geopolitical conflicts, elevated energy and commodity costs, trade policy uncertainty and shifting consumer sentiment continue to influence the industry. While nobody can predict what will happen for the remainder of the fiscal year, what differentiates Adient in this environment is our operating model. We combine strong commercial discipline and pricing mechanisms with exceptional operational execution, flexing labor, controlling costs and launching flawlessly, supported by a strong balance sheet with ample liquidity. That allows us to execute at a high level even amid production volatility and supply chain challenges. Despite these external headwinds, our year-to-date results reinforce our ability to execute. We continue to drive positive business performance despite temporary disruptions and customer-driven inefficiencies.
Story Continues
We continue to outpace the market in China as expected. And we maintain margin discipline across regions, while preserving a strong and flexible capital structure. This is how we manage what's within our control and why we continue to deliver on our commitments and maximize long-term shareholder value. Before I get into the regional update, I want to recognize our global team's exceptional performance year-to-date. We have received over 60 awards in the last 2 quarters, comprised of recognition from our customers, industry organizations and independent quality assessors across the globe, a testament to our operational excellence and the trust our customers place in Adient.
In addition to these noteworthy accomplishments, Adient continues to be recognized as an employer of choice in the regions we do business, validating our commitment to our people and enabling us to attract and retain top talent worldwide, which strengthens our ability to execute. These recognitions validate that our strategy is working. We are winning with customers, investing in our people and delivering the consistent quality that builds long-term partnerships and shareholder value. Now, let's talk a bit more about the regions on Slide 6. While our business is global, each of our regional businesses is impacted by unique market dynamics, and each is facing its own set of opportunities and challenges.
In the Americas, we are navigating a complex and dynamic environment, driven in part by tariff policies, which are manageable at current rates but continue to be fluid. Onshoring and growth remain a key focal point for the Americas team, especially as onshoring momentum continues. In addition, the teams are driving margin improvements through our continuous improvement programs, automation and optimizing our manufacturing footprint. The team is also focused on launch execution for multiple programs, including the Kia Telluride, Rivian R2 and the Toyota RAV4. In EMEA, market uncertainty and overcapacity persist and continue to impact not just Adient, but the overall industry. Our team continues to rise to these challenges.
We are pursuing and winning new and replacement business and continue to strengthen our supplier-of-choice status in the region. Operationally, the European team is driving favorable business performance through commercial execution, cost discipline and restructuring actions that more than offset the current volume headwinds, all while successfully executing more than 30 launches so far this year. Turning to Asia. The market dynamics with shorter vehicle development cycles and innovation are a key differentiator. As we will highlight in a few slides, our Asia team continues to commercialize innovation products, which our customers are excited to invest in.
Despite industry pressures in China, we continue to outperform the market through launches with local OEMs, which now represent about 70% of our wins. Our world-class JV structure further strengthens our local presence and expands our market. Beyond China, Asia outside of China is also positioned for above-market growth in the second half of this year as new launches ramp. While we do expect some manageable margin compression, the region is expected to remain accretive to Adient's EBITDA and cash generation. While each region is distinct, what ultimately defines Adient is that we operate as one unified company.
Across every region, our teams are aligned around the common purpose, serving our customers, supporting our employees and delivering value for our shareholders. We do that through disciplined execution, seamless collaboration across borders, a strong culture of integrity and the ability to adapt quickly as conditions change. Turning to Slide 7. This page highlights how our growth strategy has continued to gain momentum. In the Americas, onshoring and conquest wins continue to drive meaningful volume gains. This quarter, we secured roughly 200,000 incremental units from the Chevrolet Equinox U.S. onshoring and conquest win, along with approximately 180,000 units from Volkswagen conquest programs in South America.
These wins reflect the strength of our footprint and our ability to execute reliably as customers regionalize production. That momentum is showing up in our forward book as well. FY '27 booked business has increased to about $400 million and FY '28 to roughly $630 million, representing close to 700,000 incremental vehicles and market share gain. Importantly, that figure reflects what we booked to date. Onshoring trends continue, and we remain in active discussion with global OEMs on additional opportunities that extend beyond what's captured here. We continue to see ourselves as a net beneficiary of customer onshoring. In Asia, our team has done an exceptional job of competing and winning in a highly dynamic market.
As I mentioned in the last slide, approximately 70% of our new business wins in China are with local OEMs, reflecting strong customer relationships, faster development cycles and Adient's ability to localize engineering and execute at scale. That execution is translating into above-market growth with China up 10% in Q2 versus a declining industry. Taken together, this reinforces the momentum we're building across regions as onshoring, conquest and localized execution continues to expand our growth runway. Moving to the next slide. After the quarter-end, we announced the completion of a tuck-in acquisition that expands our foam manufacturing footprint in the Americas.
We acquired a foam production plant in Romulus, Michigan, which supports multiple OEM seating programs, expanding our Americas foam network to 10 plants and 30 plants globally. This is a strategic core business move that strengthens our vertical integration capabilities and helps improve supply assurance and responsiveness for our customers. Our focus is on a smooth integration with uninterrupted service, and we see opportunities over time from logistics advantages, operational flexibility and productivity improvements. This targeted acquisition strengthens Adient's operational model by further improving control over critical inputs, lowering execution risk and supporting more resilient margins. We are thrilled to welcome the Romulus employees to Adient and are excited about the capabilities and commitment they bring to our organization.
Moving on to Slide 9. I want to spend a moment and talk about our recent launches and the new business wins because these are important proof points on how Adient is growing. These wins aren't about volume alone. They reflect higher content, more complex seating systems and deeper integration with our customers across the regions. In the Americas, Adient continues to be a net beneficiary of customer onshoring trends. We are happy to announce the recent conquest win with the Chevrolet Equinox, highlighting once again our world-class footprint, consistent operational execution and strong customer partnerships reinforce our supplier-of-choice status. We also recently won conquest business on several Volkswagen platforms in South America.
This is strategically important growth for Adient as it deepens our footprint with a major global OEM, strengthens our regional manufacturing relevance and positions us for sustained revenue growth and incremental opportunities in the market over the coming years. In EMEA, program wins such as the new Porsche SUV and recent launch of the Citroen C4 demonstrate continued momentum with leading global OEMs. Importantly, these wins reflect disciplined, selective growth, where we are prioritizing programs that align with our operational strengths, higher value content and improved earning resilience in the region.
In Asia, growth is being driven by domestic OEMs and EV platforms, including Xpeng, Leapmotor and Changan, where we are delivering advanced comfort features, high adjustability and multivariant seating architectures, often with Adient-led engineering development in region. Importantly, many of these awards involve premium comfort content, higher complexity and greater value per vehicle. When you look at this slide, I think it's important to step back and look at the balance of our growth portfolio. On one hand, programs like the Chevrolet Equinox represent disciplined growth on high-volume onshore ICE platforms, where Adient is winning complete seat content, taking share through conquest and leveraging our market-leading North American footprint, delivering strong execution and solid cash generation.
At the same time, launches like the Rivian R2 and Leapmotor D19 position us on next-generation EV platforms, where higher complexity, tighter integration and engineering-led execution support higher content per vehicle and stronger higher-quality earnings over time. Together, these programs demonstrate that we're not making an either/or choice between legacy and next-gen. We're deliberately building a portfolio that balances scale and cash flow today with complexity-driven higher-quality earnings tomorrow. That balance is exactly what underpins the sustainability of our results and our confidence in the long-term outlook. Overall, this slide reinforces why Adient continues to be the supplier of choice, winning across regions, technologies and vehicle segments, while executing complex launches at scale. Turning to Slide 10.
I want to highlight 2 recent innovation milestones that underscore how Adient continues to turn technology leadership and realize commercial execution. Most recently, we achieved an industry-first launch of our StepJoy foot massage system on the NIO ES9. This is a key example of how we're expanding seating comfort beyond traditional lumbar and back applications, while maintaining compact packaging, cost efficiency and automotive-grade reliability. Importantly, this is not a concept. It is in production today, validating our ability to industrialize differentiated comfort solutions at scale. In parallel, we're advancing our mechanical massage portfolio with ProForce Massage Flow, which builds on our already validated ProForce platform.
ProForce Massage significantly expands massage coverage and gives customers the ability to offer premium seating experience, providing differentiation over traditional highly commoditized massage offerings offered by our competitors. The modular design and production validation allows this technology to be deployed across multiple seat architectures and vehicle segments within an OEM, enhancing scalability, and is already scheduled for production on 2 C-OEM models. The ProForce system is differentiated from what our competitors offer. Together, these launches demonstrate how we're leveraging innovation to drive higher content per vehicle, deepen OEM relationships and support higher-quality earnings over time. This is how innovation plays into Adient's operating model, disciplined, scalable, differentiated and commercially focused to help our customers enhance their overall in-vehicle experience.
Before turning this over to Mark, I want to pause here on Slide 11 because this slide really connects the dots between our operating model and what it delivered this quarter. We speak a good deal about operational excellence, profitable growth, innovation and being a supplier of choice, but these are not abstract concepts. They are the foundation that allows us to execute consistently, especially in an environment like this one. In the second quarter, that execution showed up in very tangible ways. We delivered multiple complex launches as planned, continued to convert supplier-of-choice recognition into conquest and onshoring wins, and advanced innovation programs that are already in production and generating value for our customers.
We also strengthened our footprint and reduced execution risk through a targeted tuck-in acquisition. Our teams have received more than 60 customer and industry awards across the region over the past 2 quarters, reflecting Adient's day-to-day execution and quality, launch performance, responsiveness and employee satisfaction. This recognition is translating directly into outcomes, key talent retention, deeper customer trust, conquest and onshoring wins, and the ability to launch more complex, higher-content programs consistently. That external validation reinforces why our operating model continues to scale in a challenging environment.
These proof points are the direct result of how we run the business every day, and they're what gives us the confidence in our ability to convert performance into cash flow generation and sustainable value creation going forward. Now, I'd like to turn it over to Mark to walk you through the financials.
Mark Oswald: Thanks, Jerome. Let's turn to financials on Slide 13. Adhering to our typical format, the page shows our reported results on the left side and our adjusted results on the right side. As a reminder, the prior period included a onetime noncash goodwill impairment charge of $333 million related to the EMEA goodwill impairment, which impacted our GAAP reported results in Q2 of fiscal year '25 and affects the year-over-year comparability. My comments will focus on the adjusted results, which exclude special items that we view as either onetime in nature or otherwise not reflective of the underlying performance of the business. Full details of these adjustments are included in the appendix of the presentation for reference.
Moving to the right side, high level for the quarter. Sales for the quarter were $3.9 billion, up 7% year-over-year, reflecting favorable FX, solid volumes and strong underlying business performance. Adjusted EBITDA was $223 million. While this was down year-over-year, the comparison reflects the impact of near-term customer-driven production inefficiencies and increased launch expense as we continue to invest in future growth. Equity income was lower year-on-year as a result of lower volumes with certain of our customers in China. Adjusted net income was $41 million or $0.52 per share. Let's dig a bit deeper into the quarter, beginning with revenue on Slide 14.
I'll go through the next few slides relatively quickly as details for the results are included on the slides, allowing sufficient time for Q&A. We reported consolidated sales of $3.9 billion in the quarter, which was an increase of $254 million compared to the same period last year, primarily reflecting better FX tailwinds, along with favorable volume and pricing. On the right side of the page, we are presenting regional performance on a trailing 12-month basis. This view helps normalize seasonality and timing effects inherent to our operating model and provides a clear picture of the underlying trends.
In the Americas, we are seeing growth of 5%, outperforming a flat market, primarily driven by Adient's customer profile, pricing and new vehicle launches. In EMEA, sales have trailed the market, reflecting customer volume and mix and deliberate portfolio actions such as the recent closure of our Saarlouis Ford plant. For China, while the trailing 12-month view is influenced by earlier-period softness, recent performance has notably been stronger. This quarter, sales in China grew at double digits, while the overall market declined, building on first quarter's significant outperformance. We expect this trend to continue over the next several quarters based on our book of business and launch schedule.
Unconsolidated revenue declined year-over-year, reflecting planned program exits in Europe and lower volumes in China. Turning to Q2 EBITDA performance. Adjusted EBITDA of $223 million included approximately $8 million of temporary customer-driven production inefficiencies, which we expect to recover in future periods, and $11 million of launch expense, which supports future growth in our expanding program portfolio. Excluding these items, Adient's underlying business performance remains solid, reflecting the strength of our operating model and the continued focus our teams have on operational excellence and delivering on our full year commitments.
As shown on the chart, volume and mix was an approximate $18 million headwind, mainly driven by the shift to China OEMs versus foreign manufacturers in China, which, as mentioned previously, will result in margin compression that we view as manageable, plus a variety of higher volumes on lower-margin platforms in North America in Q2. As in prior quarters, we've provided detailed segment-level performance slides in the appendix of the presentation for your review, but I'll briefly summarize each region at a high level. In the Americas, we had a solid underlying business performance, reflecting strong execution and program momentum.
Results for the quarter were partially impacted by mix, temporary production inefficiencies and launch costs to support the region's future growth. In EMEA, the team continued to focus on driving positive business performance despite a challenging macro environment. And along with FX tailwinds, this helped mitigate the ongoing mix headwinds in the region. In Asia, results were impacted by equity income, the timing of commercial negotiations and planned increases in launch as the region invests in new programs and growth. Equity income was unfavorable year-on-year, primarily reflecting lower volumes in our China joint ventures. Moving on, let me flip to our cash, liquidity and capital structure on Slides 16 and 17. Starting with cash on Slide 16.
For the quarter, the company generated $8 million of free cash flow, defined as operating cash flow less CapEx. In addition to the typical seasonality of our business, second quarter cash flow benefited from approximately $90 million of timing-related items, specifically related to a commercial agreement and a hedging transaction. Both items will reverse and become outflows in the third quarter. On a year-to-date basis, free cash flow totaled $23 million and included the benefit of the same $90 million timing effect just mentioned.
Excluding this impact, year-on-year cash flow performance reflects favorable working capital fluctuations, driven by typical period-to-period swings, lower cash restructuring outflows in Europe, timing of dividend payments, and an increase in cash spending, supporting Adient's growth initiatives and automation spend. Important to point out, last quarter, we highlighted a nonrecurring tax settlement in a certain jurisdiction that increased our tax -- cash tax forecast for fiscal year '26. That settlement was paid out in our second quarter. Despite the expected $90 million outflow in the third quarter, we continue to expect strong free cash flow in the second half of the year, consistent with our historical seasonality, and remain confident in delivering on our free cash flow commitment.
Turning to our balance sheet on Slide 17. Adient continues to maintain a strong and flexible capital structure. As of March 31, we had a total liquidity of approximately $1.8 billion, consisting of $831 million of cash on hand and $957 million of undrawn revolver capacity. Again, worth mentioning, the $90 million, which benefited second quarter free cash flow, was also included in the March 31 cash balance. I would also point out, Adient did draw on our ABL during the quarter due to typical seasonality and normal working capital fluctuations for our business. The ABL was fully repaid within the quarter.
On a trailing 12-month basis, our net leverage was 1.8x, which remains comfortably within our targeted range of 1.5x to 2x, reflecting both disciplined capital management and the underlying earnings power of the business. Importantly, we have no near-term debt maturities, providing us with significant financial flexibility as we navigate a dynamic operating and macro environment. Overall, the capital structure remains strong and flexible. Turning now to our expectations as we move from the first half into the second half of fiscal year 2026. The first half of fiscal 2026 delivered solid business performance that was in line with our internal expectations despite a challenging operating environment.
We remain focused on what was within our control, maintained discipline in execution and cost management, and exited the first half with a solid cash position and a healthy balance sheet. As we look to the second half of fiscal year '26, we currently anticipate approximately $35 million of input cost headwinds. Approximately $25 million is related to Middle East conflict through higher chemical and freight costs, and additional $10 million is driven by higher costs as a result of the LyondellBasell chemical supply disruption. This $35 million of higher input costs is expected to be more than offset with the benefits from volume and the acceleration of business performance.
The team remains focused on driving business performance and generating cash. Turning to our updated outlook for fiscal 2026. Based on our performance year-to-date, improved customer production schedules, we are modestly increasing full year guidance for revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. We now expect consolidated revenue of approximately $14.8 billion, up from our prior outlook of approximately $14.6 billion, reflecting solid first half performance, updated near-term customer production schedules and the latest S&P Global production assumptions. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to be approximately $885 million, up from our prior guidance of $880 million, reflecting the impact of higher revenues and increased business performance, which are helping to offset the $35 million of anticipated higher input costs.
As a result of these updates, we now expect free cash flow of approximately $130 million, up from $125 million previously. This improvement reflects the pull-through of incremental adjusted EBITDA and continued focus on working capital discipline and cash generation. Cash taxes are still expected of approximately $125 million, no change from prior guidance. CapEx also remains unchanged at approximately $300 million. We have included a simple adjusted EBITDA bridge within the materials on Slide 20 that illustrates the components of our revised guidance. Before wrapping up, I want to spend a moment on Slide 21 because this page speaks to the durability and trajectory of our cash generation.
As we've discussed, the $130 million of free cash flow expected this year reflects several elevated and transitional cash uses that are not structural to the business. As these items normalize, we expect materially stronger EBITDA to free cash flow conversion. Capital expenditures are expected to remain at about $300 million, supporting growth, innovation, operational excellence, while remaining aligned with our long-term capital allocation framework. Restructuring cash flows are expected to normalize as European actions progress. Similarly, interest expense is expected to ease with opportunistic repricings and voluntary debt paydown. And finally, cash taxes are expected to revert to a more normalized level following this year's nonrecurring settlement payment.
Taken together, these actions clearly outline the path to a structurally higher free cash flow profile. Longer term, as business performance and volume continue to scale and calls for cash remain relatively stable, we believe Adient is well positioned to generate materially stronger free cash flow, supporting disciplined and balanced capital allocation, driving enhanced shareholder value. With that, let's move to the question-and-answer portion of the call. Operator, can we have our first question, please?
Operator:[Operator Instructions] Our first question does come from Colin Langan with Wells Fargo.
Colin Langan: Any color on why the revenue increase? I mean, we've seen S&P actually lowered numbers, at least on the calendar year. Anything in particular that's driving that? Is that just a geographic mix, certain platform mix?
Mark Oswald: Yes. Colin, I'd say it's a combination of, one, you have to adjust that we're on the September 30 fiscal year, right? Obviously, we're 2 quarters through. Third quarter, we have pretty good visibility now based on production call-offs, right? And then, it's -- as you indicated, it's based on geographic mix, it's customer platforms that we're exposed to, et cetera.
Colin Langan: Okay. And any color on the onshore bidding? I mean, you seem to have won a pretty large chunk of that so far. Has this been sort of a short-term action wave and then more actions will come in a few years? Or is this actually still even early days for some of the onshoring opportunities, and we'll see the larger numbers coming as more stuff gets bid and onshored?
Jerome Dorlack: Yes. I think we're -- in terms of the discussions with the customers, I think they're still very active, still very dynamic. At the point where we're at now, I think a lot of them are waiting to see how the USMCA negotiations and discussions go. Once there is clarity on how that shapes up and what the rules in terms of content, how long that agreement will be, whether it will be an annual evergreen or another 7-year bilateral or trilateral, whatever that shapes up to be, I think that will then free up the next wave of onshoring discussions.
I think what's important though and how you think about Adient and how we're positioned, and we've presented figures on this in the past, among seating suppliers, we have the best footprint to be able to capitalize on this. We have more JIT facilities than anyone -- than any other seating supplier in the U.S. From a geographic standpoint, we're best positioned to be able to capitalize on this. We have the capacity to be able to do it.
And then, because of our leading modularity, ModuTec, and capabilities, and now with the foaming acquisition, we have the capital ready to be able to deploy the footprint to be able to deploy it and the customer relationships to be able to capitalize on this. And I think we still feel pretty strongly we'll be a net beneficiary of onshoring.
Operator: Our next question comes from Nathan Jones with Stifel.
Andres Loret de Mola: This is Andres Loret de Mola on for Nathan Jones. Just on margins, the decline of 70 bps, can you maybe give a little bit more color on the temporary customer-driven costs? And are they recoverable later on?
Mark Oswald: Yes. So good question. So yes, if you look at that 70 bps, I'd say 60 bps is really related to mix. And as I indicated in my prepared remarks, a lot of that mix was -- obviously, we were very transparent that as we continue to shift and pivot to the Chinese local manufacturers there, there's going to be margin compression. That's the majority of that. There was also some, I'd say, higher-volume, lower-margin business in the Americas that we saw for the quarter. We do view the mix shift over in China to be very manageable. We've indicated that's going to be falling up somewhere around 100 basis points when we get through the year.
So 1 quarter does not make a trend. We have a pretty good line of sight in terms of what launches are coming on, where production is heading over there. Same thing with the Americas just in terms of where we see the volumes heading over there in the next couple of quarters.
Andres Loret de Mola: Got it. That's helpful. And then, just on the split domestic versus foreign OEMs in China, I mean, can you guys -- I know you said 70% launches with local OEMs. Can you provide a kind of breakdown of what that mix is now and sort of what you expect for 2026?
Mark Oswald: Yes. So last year, we ended 2025, we were somewhere just north of 60-40 mix over there. And so, as we continue to win -- and we indicated last year, our 2025 wins was also skewed about 70% local Chinese to 30% foreign. So, as we continue to launch this year, that's going to be trending from, call it, that low-60% to that 70% mark over the course of the next 12 months or so.
Jerome Dorlack: Yes. And I think as we indicated in the prepared remarks today, our bookings this year are mirroring that same bookings rate, so 70% domestic, 30% [ transplant ] for the win rate. So if you look at our forward roll-on, we would expect our roll-on to continue to drive mirroring that 70% domestic, 30% [ transplant ], so continuing a very aggressive roll-on business and rotation into the domestic OEM. And it really is leveraged by our world-class joint venture footprint that we have there, working with our joint venture partners and really the way we operate our business in China for China with local Chinese leadership, local Chinese management and leveraging our technology.
And that's why we talked a lot today about technology, bringing technology to scale there, and it's not commoditized technology. It is leading-edge technology there that allows our customers to be able to price for value, price for the customer in that region through the products we deliver there.
Operator: The next question comes from Joe Spak with UBS.
Joseph Spak: Mark, I want to go back to your comments on normalized free cash flow. And I want to sort of bridge that a little bit to sort of next year as well. And I realize like you're not going to guide '27 now and a lot can happen between now and then. But you are talking about $400 million on the backlog. So even if we assume 10% incremental margin, that's like $40 million in EBITDA. The recoveries from the Middle East is another $25 million. The supply disruption is another $10 million. You have business performance. There's the $100 million in free cash flow timing items you mentioned in '26.
So I guess what I'm getting at is, it seems like based on what we know now, and I know things can change, it seems like free cash flow could be up over $200 million next year. I'm just wondering if we're thinking about that correctly, if there's any other offsets we should be thinking about? And if we do see that, I know you said you paused the buyback activity for uncertainty, but why wouldn't you sort of try to maybe get ahead of what seems like a pretty good inflection of cash flow and buy back the stock when it's at relatively attractive valuations?
Mark Oswald: Yes. Great questions, Joe. I think you're thinking about the buckets the right way. Clearly, there's going to be revenue growth that we've been very transparent in mentioning. So obviously, that will convert. If I look at my calls from cash, as I indicated, those will be relatively stable to improving, right, as my cash taxes trends back to its normalized level. Restructuring -- now, again, restructuring over time will trend back to its normal level in Europe. We obviously still have to look to see the European landscape over there. I don't think anybody is expecting that to get much better over there, right?
So we have to see what our customers do with their programs, what that means for our restructuring. But all in all, that will trend back down to its normalized level. Interest expense, as I indicated, we're opportunistic with repricing like we've been doing with the Term Loan B as we basically do some voluntary debt paydown because we do recognize that the disciplined capital allocation policy includes not only share buybacks, but also debt paydown, right, inorganic growth opportunities as we demonstrated this past quarter with the Woodbridge business. Yes, I think you're right. I think the cash definitely trends higher. So I think you're thinking about that in the right way, Joe.
In terms of why not get in front of it earlier and we hit the pause button this year on the share repurchases, as I indicated, we got into Q2 -- because of normal seasonality and working capital needs, we actually did draw on the ABL, right? So we drew $150 million that will be called out in our Q this afternoon when we release that. When we paid that back, clearly, the war in the Middle East, it started, it escalated. We started to see chemical prices increase. We had the supplier [indiscernible] right. So there was greater uncertainty. So it was prudent for us to do that as we went through Q2.
As we go through the balance of the year and we go into next year, there's really been no change in our capital allocation policy. We still expect to be good stewards of capital. We'll still be balanced with our allocation policy right. So, no change from that perspective.
Joseph Spak: I guess, the second question, just I want to go back to China. Again, on the one hand, you're talking about 70% of the wins in China is domestic. That's coinciding with margin degradation in the region, which I know you said you can expect, and I think the slides had a comment about how it's manageable. But can you just help us like level set like -- because it's sort of tied up within the -- what you show for APAC. I know some of the China business is unconsolidated. Like, where are we now? What level does that backlog really come on at from a margin perspective? And like where can we see margins going?
I think you've been very clear, and we can appreciate that, that's going to be a margin headwind. But what's sort of the steady-state level for that business?
Mark Oswald: I think as we go through the balance of this year, as I indicated, do I still expect us to be down about 100 bps in 2026? Absolutely. As we continue to win new business over in that region, the team has been working very hard just in terms of, again, using automation over there, right? They're basically being sourced, the whole seating, whether it's trim, foam, JIT, right, metals, right, which continues to help out the overall earnings profile of that business over there, right? So the team is working hard to continue to maintain it at 100 basis point degradation. We view that as manageable.
As we get into 2027 and start to finalize 2027, and we'll be back out with that. But again, I think that 100 basis points is probably good for your modeling at this point.
Operator: The next question comes from Mike Ward with Citigroup.
Michael Ward: Mark, maybe just to follow up a little bit on what Joe was asking. On the excess cost, the $25 million, $35 million, does that -- if you're able to recover it by the end of this year, does that provide some upside to your current forecast?
Mark Oswald: Yes. So again, Mike, if you think about chemicals in particular, right, we have pass-through agreements and escalators with our customers, right? Those typically come on at a 2-quarter lag, right? So third quarter, I'm not expecting any recoveries. Am I going to start getting some of those recoveries in the fourth quarter? Absolutely. Will some of that bleed into '27? Yes. Some of the, what I'd say, customer production inefficiencies, right, we called that out. Is the Americas team going to go back and work with our customers to try and recoup some of that in the back half of this year? Yes, there will be tough commercial negotiations. So could there be some upside, Mike? Possibly.
But again, tell me when the war in the Middle East is going to end, tell me what oil prices are going to do, tell me how fast LyondellBasell can get their facility up and operating, right? So those -- we're trying to balance what I'd say is the risk for the balance of the year versus, as you indicate, some opportunities for the balance of the year. That's why we came out with the $885 million guide. That's our best 50-50 look right now in terms of where we think the year is going to end.
Michael Ward: Makes sense. And maybe, Jerome, on more of a strategic standpoint, I mean, the trim acquisition, in North America, what type of level of vertical integration do you have for a typical seat?
Jerome Dorlack: Yes. So the Woodbridge plant is a foaming plant for us. If you look at our business in North America, I mean, on an average contract, given our customer mix and our customer platform mix, especially when we talk about the large truck platform that we acquired, it would have been 2 quarters ago when we went from just having the JIT and foam, we acquired JIT, trim and foam on that, we will be well over 80%, probably 85% vertically integrated on our business in North America. It is a very, very healthy level now in our North America business. And when I say vertically integrated, I speak about JIT, trim and foam.
We've talked a lot about the metals business and trying to look at the metals business and wind out some of our non-healthy metals business. So we've been, I think, very transparent on that. But on the JIT, trim and foam level, it's a very healthy level of vertical integration now in the Americas business. And it's one of the reasons why you've seen the Americas business really have a, I think, nice progression on the margin expansion and the cash flow progression as well.
Operator: Up next is Emmanuel Rosner with Wolfe Research.
Emmanuel Rosner: I was hoping to first follow up a little bit on the commodities outlook. I know obviously, a lot of moving parts between the disruption and the conflict. But at least in terms of the disruption piece, do you have good visibility in terms of the supply? Is it really just a question of higher pricing and basically recoveries coming with a lag? Or is there also -- I guess, what sort of visibility do you have in terms of essentially ensuring supply? And then, what does that look like into 2027?
Jerome Dorlack: Yes, I think you have to -- I think, Emmanuel, you have to break it down into 2 pieces. I think you have to break down the LyondellBasell issue and then maybe break down the Middle East/Strait of Hormuz issue. So on LyondellBasell, I think our team in the Americas, with our customer group, has done a very good job of working through alternative means of supply and securing alternate supply chains. So I think we have good line of sight, alternative chemicals supplied, validation underway with our customers. I think we've been able to tie that off.
On the Strait of Hormuz, at the moment, I think we have line of visibility as much as anyone in the industry can have when it comes to supply. I'll go back to Mark's comments. I don't think we can sit here today and be any better forecasters or prognosticators that would say, if it remains the way it is, I can't tell you what's going to happen in 3 months, 5 months, 6 months or anything along those lines. I don't know that I can give you a better answer than anyone else can on that topic, Emmanuel, nor should we really be doing that.
So again, on LyondellBasell, I think we've done a very good job working with our teams. I think we're supplied. We have supply secured. On Strait of Hormuz, I don't think we're in any better condition or any worse of a condition than anyone else in the industry on that topic.
Emmanuel Rosner: That's helpful. And then, one follow-up on the normalized free cash flow. So obviously, a decent piece of it would be normalization of restructuring spending. It doesn't seem like 2027 would necessarily be the year, first, with potential restructuring needs in Europe. I guess, what would need to happen to be able to sort of like lower this restructuring need? It just feels like in Europe, there's maybe some structural industry trends that would require ongoing restructuring for longer.
Jerome Dorlack: I think it's too early to say, Emmanuel, whether 2027 is normalized or not normalized, whether there's a tail-off or not a tail-off. I think we're very much in active discussions with a couple of key customers around the key -- a couple of key JIT manufacturing sites right now and what the future of those sites will be. So it's just -- it's too early to say what '27 and even '28 look like at this point. In terms of what needs to happen in Europe, I think there needs to be stabilization within the European theater on industry volumes and capacity rationalization across not only the JIT landscape and the seating landscape, but also our customers' manufacturing landscape.
And I think there's still announcements coming out at our customers, where they're trying to repurpose their manufacturing facilities. You've seen announcements around that. And with that, that opens up opportunities for us to be able to service them in different ways than maybe we would traditionally do. And it's some of those discussions that we're in with them. So I think it's too early to say what our '27 restructuring looks like, whether it tapers off or it doesn't, and the same would go for '28.
Operator: The next question comes from Dan Levy with Barclays.
Dan Levy: Your second half guidance, you're basically saying that you're offsetting the weaker half-over-half revenue and the onset of some of these commodity costs with better business performance, which you've done a really good job putting up. Maybe you could just remind us sort of like what's hitting now? And then, you've broadly talked about a number of different work streams in terms of restructuring, balance-in, balance-out, labor efficiency. Maybe just give us a sense where you are on your journey on business because it's been so good for so long. And what else is sort of the next front here on continuing to drive those benefits as opposed to sort of clearing out already the low-hanging fruit?
Mark Oswald: Yes, Dan, maybe I'll start on what we see first half, second half, and Jerome can comment just in terms of certain of the automation, which is going to contribute to the efficiencies and business performance. But you're absolutely right. When I look at first half, second half, sales are going to be down slightly where we called out $35 million of higher input costs. But I've also got the benefit of lower launch costs in the second half of the year. I've got better business performance.
As we indicated, business performance starts to accelerate, whether that's through the lower launch costs, my ops waste, my C&I efficiencies that the plant builds as I go through the second half of the year, right? Some of the, what I'd say, frictional costs that [ hit ] in Q2 with the customers, we'd expect that to subside as we go through Q3, Q4. So it's really the acceleration of business performance that really gives me comfort in terms of confidence in what I think I can do in second half versus first half despite the lower levels of [ buying ].
Jerome Dorlack: Yes. And then, to your -- second part of your question, what is the -- I'll use my words, the next frontier of driving business performance? We've talked a lot about automation starting to flow in. And even this year, if you look at the capital expenditures that we're putting into the business, that step-up year-over-year in automation, that will start to pay dividends as we get into '27 and '28. And we're really leading the industry in terms of some of the automation we're doing in our foaming business, some of the automation we're putting into our metals business, our trim business, and then, on the JIT side of it, what we've been able to do with our modularity.
The feedback we get from our customers is your modularity offerings are leading edge. It's one of the reasons we've been able to conquest and expand our backlog in the JIT side is through our modularity offerings. With that, we're not only able to offer more competitive pricing to our customers, but it also leads to some of this margin expansion story, better roll-on, roll-off into the business.
And so, when you look at the restructuring coming in, in Europe starting to pay dividends, but then also modularity, better roll-on, roll-off and then the automation piece of it, that's really where we see this then starting to fuel some of the additional margin expansion that we'll see in the Americas and in our European business going forward and that sustainability piece. And then, just coming back to some of the questions that we had earlier in the call around Asia and China in particular.
I think it is worth continuing to highlight that even though there will be margin compression on the Asia side -- or the Asia Pacific business, as revenues grow there, even with that margin compression, it will still be cash-accretive, margin-accretive and still expanding cash flows for Adient overall. I think it's always important to keep that in mind.
Dan Levy: Great. As a follow-up, I wanted to just -- I asked a similar question on the last earnings call, but I think it just gets to a broader theme on where we are on market share dynamics in the seating market and more specifically within North America because one of your competitors has talked about sort of a growing pipeline and traction on awards. So can you just give us a sense, broad strokes, what we are seeing on market share dynamics? Is there sort of a consolidation within yourselves and another one of your competitors away from the rest of the field?
Jerome Dorlack: Yes. I think that's a fair way to characterize it. I think if we look at where the wins are occurring, where some of the market share is coming from and how that pie is shaping up, I think based on the competitive offering that we're able to bring forward, our modularity solutions, the technology that we're able to put in place, I think the pie continues to shrink into those who are able to bring the most competitive offerings forward, who have the balance sheet to be able to do it, who are able to deploy the capital and who are the suppliers of choice into their customers.
And I think Adient is certainly one of those, if not the preeminent one in the space. And I think with that, we're at the bottom of the -- or I guess, the midpoint of the hour. I just want to close the call by first thanking all of the 70,000 Adient employees around the world for your commitment to making the company what it is, and then thank all of our customers for your continued support to the business and to the company, and then thank all of our owners and shareholders for your ongoing support. Thank you very much, everybody.
Mark Oswald: Thank you.
Linda Conrad: Thank you. And in closing, I want to thank you once again for your interest in Adient. If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to me. With that, operator, we can close the call.
Operator: Thank you. That does conclude today's conference. We thank you for your participation. Have a wonderful day. And at this time, you may disconnect your lines.
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Adient (ADNT) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool
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