Auto supplier Autoliv cuts full-year forecast after weak quarter

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden's Autoliv cut its full-year financial forecasts on Friday after lower sales led to second-quarter adjusted profit falling below expectations, sending its shares down.

The world's largest producer of airbags and seatbelts, said it now sees full-year organic sales growth of 2%, down from an earlier 5%.

The company supplies equipment across the auto industry, a sector hit hard by supply chain issues, a slowdown in EV sales and continued high costs. As a result, light vehicle production (LVP), a gauge Autoliv is highly dependent on, has declined.

Shares slumped more than 7% by 1045 GMT.

Autoliv, whose customers include Volkswagen, Stellantis and Toyota, also cut its adjusted operating margin forecast to 9.5%-10% from 10.5%.

"Light vehicle production with certain key customers following weaker sales and inventory adjustments were lower than expected in the quarter, especially in June," CEO Mikael Bratt said.

"The lower than expected sales impacted our profitability with an operating leverage at the high end of our normal 20%-30% range," he said.

Adjusted operating profit grew to $221 million from $212 million a year before, against a mean estimate of $265 million in a poll of analysts provided by the Swedish group.

Despite the weaker than expected sales, Autoliv said it sees encouraging signs from customers' production plans that the third quarter may be normalising.

Autoliv has been reducing costs since last year, cutting thousands of jobs and closing plants in Europe in response to inflation across the sector.

That, combined with being able to raise prices of its products, has led the company to expect higher profitability going into the second half of the year compared with the start of 2024.

(Reporting by Marie Mannes, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Louise Heavens)