Magna International Inc. (NYSE:MGA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 6 of 10

But as we stand here today, I think it’s tracking to what we expect.

Dan Levy: Great, thank you.

Operator: Thank you very much. We’ll proceed with our next question on the line from Colin Langan with Wells Fargo. Please go right ahead.

Colin Langan: Great, thanks for taking my questions. If I look at the implied second half margin, it’s around 5.6%, which is clearly above your full year outlook. Should we be thinking of that as the right sort of jumping off point as we go into ’24, or you kind of mentioned that there’s a cadence of recoveries, so is there sort of a little help from the recoveries in the first half that’s helping that second half margin, making it maybe not a good base to be thinking about?

Louis Tonelli: Yes, hi Colin, good morning. I think when you look at second half, you’re correct, but this is what we had been expecting as we get through the back half of the year, that recovery is going to be more back half loaded. As we move into–and as Swamy said earlier, we’re still comfortable with where we’re going in our ’25 projections, and we’re in the middle of our BP process, but we do have to get some volumes and assumptions and whatnot. But coming in, do we expect to have a reduction in margins into ’24? No. Do we think we can launch from the mid-5s upwards? I agree with that thought.

Colin Langan: Okay, got it. Then you mentioned before–so how should we think about the cadence as we go into next year, because it sounds like you still have a third of your recoveries might need to get renegotiated in some form, so does that mean there is going to be this sort of continued tougher Q1 until you get those recoveries, or is this becoming more of an automatic formula because, if certain conditions are met, you could kind of just get them January 1?

Louis Tonelli: Oh, I think it’s way too early to comment on cadence in 2024. We need to get through our planning process and then we’ll have a better sense for that.

Colin Langan: I guess I was trying to get at how it normally works. Do you have to start those negotiations at the beginning of next year again, or is it more of a–I’m just trying to understand the triggers that would help you get those recoveries for whatever’s not locked into piece price.

Swamy Kotagiri: Colin, I think like I said, the one that is in a mechanism basis that kind of flows through, but the other will be data-based on where our set of assumptions are in terms of energy and commodities and so on. That will be very fact-based. Some conversations for ’24 are already on the table, to the extent that we know the information, and if you remember, in the last two calls I said, when we talk ’23, it’s not just only ’23, some of it is ’22 and some of it is forward-looking, to think about what ’24 what would look like. But like Louis said, that will become more definite once we finish our set of assumptions and have the plan in front of us.

Colin Langan: Got it, all right. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator: Thank you very much. We’ll proceed with our next question on the line from Joseph Spak with UBS Securities. Please go right ahead.

Joseph Spak: Good morning everyone. Maybe a little bit of housekeeping just to start, because I’m a little bit confused on the amortization color you provided. You adjusted your prior guidance by about 10 basis points, which suggests about $40 million; but then when I look in the quarter, it looks like you added back $32 million in the quarter, so how do we square that because it doesn’t seem like that–was the amortization abnormally high in this quarter? Like, why would it step down? Maybe you could just give us a better sense as to what you think–what the full year amortization was last year, this year, and what the right run rate is going forward, so we can properly adjust our models.

Page 6 of 10