Car parts group Faurecia revises down 2021 targets due to semiconductor shortage

PARIS (Reuters) - French car parts company Faurecia lowered its main 2021 financial targets on Thursday, saying it was adapting them due to the new forecasts for the global automotive market published last week by information provider IHS Markit.

Faurecia noted IHS Markit now estimated worldwide car production at 72 million vehicles this year versus 76.8 million previously, adding this sharp reduction was primarily attributable to a higher than expected impact from semiconductor shortages.

"Faurecia's financial guidance for 2021 was explicitly based on the assumption of 76.6 million vehicles produced in the full year", the company said.

Based on this new assumption of a 72-million global car production, Faurecia now sees full year sales of 15.5 billion euros ($18.2 billion) versus a previous target 16.5 billion.

The group, which won a bidding tussle to take control of German lighting group Hella last month, says its 2021 operating margin will range from 6.0% and 6.2% versus a previous guidance of 7%.

Faurecia's net cash flow target, which the group had upgraded at the end of July, was also lowered, to around 500 million euros versus a previous target of a total exceeding that figure.

"The revised 2021 guidance, adjusted to reflect the sharp reduction in worldwide automotive production to 72 million vehicles in FY 2021, confirms Faurecia's strong operating leverage and effectiveness of resilience actions," Faurecia said.

($1 = 0.8537 euros)

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)