Magna International Inc. (NYSE:MGA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Swamy Kotagiri : And some of this rollover changes, like labor inflation is going to be sticky and we have to offset that in terms of continuous improvements and other, call it, structural improvements going forward and accelerate the continuous improvement as we talked about. And to address the first part of your question, Rod, I’m confident that it is not a fundamental shift in the profile of the business. I think some of the things that we talked about is actually the transition of all these input cost effects and the higher investment that we’re making for the businesses that we’ve won. I think as we transition through in the long term, I believe there is no foundational or fundamental change in the profile of the business. So the 2018, in terms of percentages of ratios, we can get back to. But I think the more important part is that’s weighing on us is the uncertainty of what’s going on in the industry right now.

Rod Lache : Thanks for that. And just Swamy, just in light of what’s happening in the market and strategies of some of your peers, are you still of the view that diversification is a net positive for Magna? Or just given the complexity of issues in different parts of the company that we’ve seen over years, is there more benefit from focus on and having some of the businesses you’re kind of independent response?

Swamy Kotagiri : Yes, Rod, I think if I understood your question, you’re talking about the portfolio of products and the focus related question. I tend to kind of look at what’s happening in the industry and how the kind of the future is going to be designed or how is it going to be sourced is changing. And our customers that are shifting their organization even, whether it is the sourcing side of things or engineering side of things to be looking at more highly integrated systems. Some of the OEMs have already changed their organizations to address their aspect of it. So I think we are — at Magna not looking at body and chassis and seats and electronics and powertrain as independent. But more or less, what are the systems that are going to evolve going forward and how do we build the synergies to get a system approach solution to it.

With that said, we continuously look at each of these products how they evolve and how relevant are they going forward and what synergy values that we can bring. And if they are not, as we have done in the past, we’ll do what is necessary.

Rod Lache: Alright. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Michael Glen with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Michael Glen : Hey, thanks. Just wanted to zone in a bit on the body and exteriors margins. Can you just highlight how the mega spend trend or incremental spending with megatrend is impacting that specific business? Is battery trade part of that segment? I guess I always thought it was somewhat agnostic to megatrends. But I am just trying — wondering if there’s something there I should be thinking about?

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