2015 Results

EuroBusiness Media (EBM): Plastic Omnium, a world leader in automotive body parts, fuel tanks and waste containers reports results for 2015. Laurent Burelle, welcome. You are the Chairman and CEO of Plastic Omnium. To begin, what are your main takeaways from these 2015 results? Laurent Burelle: We have enjoyed in 2015 a very good year. All our aggregates – turnover, EBIT, EBTIDA, net profit, free cash flow – have increased quite a lot, double digit. And we are pleased to have reached such benchmark values. EBM: You announced that in 2016 Plastic Omnium would do better than the auto market. I'd like to understand that a bit better. What is your forecast for the auto market in 2016 as a whole, and for Plastic Omnium within it? Laurent Burelle: We think the market in 2016 will grow between 2 to 3%, that means more than 2.5 million additional cars manufactured on a worldwide basis. Our backlog, our order book, shows us that we will very probably outperform the market by a couple of percents, which will allow us not to improve our high percentage of EBIT but improve in absolute value and grow our net result. EBM: Now, could I ask you to focus on the Chinese market. What is your view of that market going forward? Laurent Burelle: There are three different, big zones in the world. You have North America, Europe and China. We are all talking and giving a lot of importance to China because it is the biggest worldwide market, with 22- 23 million cars manufactured per year. And we do forecast 6% growth for 2016. But we forecast growth for Western Europe and we forecast growth for North America too. For instance, our turnover in Mexico is as big as in China. So we enjoy different zones in the world: USA, Mexico, France, England, China, where we're growing very fast; and we face headwinds in Russia, in Brazil, but that's the name of the game. The world is growing in average but not the same everywhere. EBM: Diesel was in the spotlight in 2015. How do see your SCR, Selective Catalytic Reduction system, evolve in 2016? Laurent Burelle: First of all, it has been I think a surprise for many that Plastic Omnium is a leader in selective catalyst reduction, where we have two big worldwide competitors and we're sharing in equal parts the market. So Plastic Omnium has invented, developed and patented a system to reduce the emission of gases. The Dieselgate has been a blow in North America, to the diesel obviously, and in Mexico somehow too. But in the rest of the world, it is still growing. Our system will be implemented with 12 additional OEMs in the world and we will reach more than 2.7 million units of our SCR booked already in 2019. So we will enjoy, whatever, a nice growth in the SCR invoices in the next five years. EBM: Also newsworthy at the end of 2015 was the announcement of your planned acquisition of Faurecia's Exterior Systems. Where do you stand today? Laurent Burelle: The global idea with the acquisition of Faurecia Exterior Systems is that Plastic Omnium could grow on a worldwide basis and acquire more engineer, more technology and more capability to serve and develop new products for the global worldwide OEMs. We are already a leader but we're not a leader in Europe or a leader in North America. So that will help us to grow and give a better service. On the other side, we have to be conditional to the Brussels authorization by the board of competition and market share analysis, so we will wait until we have this authorization, until the year-end of 2016. EBM: Now, we often hear you mention innovation as the main engine of growth and development for Plastic Omnium. What lies ahead? Laurent Burelle: For the last 60 years, Plastic Omnium has been very much innovation-oriented. We are a company where we like investment, we like automatization, we like robots, because that's quality, that's competitivenesss, that allows us to be a world number 1 in our two technologies. But on top of that, there is a second pillar, which is innovation. Innovation means lighter materials, lighter parts, more shock-resistant innovation. We have to use our cash to prepare ourselves for the revolution of the cars for the next 10 and 20 years, and I think we will enjoy a very exciting time using this profitability to develop new parts and new modules for the car industry. EBM: Laurent Burelle, Chairman and CEO of Plastic Omnium, thank you very much. Laurent Burelle: Thank you.