Magna (MGA) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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DATE

Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, at 8 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Swamy Kotagiri
• Chief Financial Officer — Phil Fecassa
• Vice President, Investor Relations — Louis Tonelli

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TAKEAWAYS

• Sales -- $10.5 billion in sales for Q3 2025, reflecting a 2% year-over-year increase, with three of four operating segments posting year-over-year sales growth; Complete Vehicles declined 6% year-over-year due to end-of-production for certain models.
• Adjusted EBIT -- $613 million in adjusted EBIT for Q3 2025, Adjusted EBIT was up 3%, with a 5.9% margin, representing a 10 basis point improvement year-over-year despite a 35 basis point headwind attributed to unrecovered tariffs.
• Adjusted EPS -- $1.33 in adjusted earnings per share for Q3 2025, a 4% increase in adjusted EPS, supported by higher net income and a 2% reduction in diluted shares outstanding from buybacks over the past 12 months.
• Free Cash Flow -- $572 million in free cash flow for Q3 2025, up $398 million from the same period last year, primarily due to reduced capital expenditures and favorable working capital movements.
• Capital Spending Outlook -- Lowered to approximately $1.5 billion for 2025, or 3.6% of sales, well below the initial $1.8 billion target, reflecting capital discipline without compromising growth initiatives.
• Full-Year Outlook Raised -- Adjusted EBIT margin range increased to 5.4%-5.6% for 2025 and adjusted net income forecasted at $1.45 billion-$1.55 billion for 2025; free cash flow outlook increased by $200 million to $1.0 billion-$1.2 billion for 2025.
• Leverage Ratio -- Targeting a reduction below 1.7x by year-end, with the current adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio at 1.88x and $4.7 billion in total liquidity at the end of September.
• Tariff Exposure -- Agreements reached with additional OEMs for 2025 net tariff exposures; remaining negotiations expected to be substantially completed by year-end with residual margin impact projected at under 10 basis points for the 2025 adjusted EBIT margin.
• Production Forecast Updates -- North America revised to 15 million units, and China to 31.5 million units, both reflecting increased expected outperformance in the second half of the year; Europe held essentially flat.
• Major Program Launches -- Began serial production for Shopang and a second Chinese OEM at Magna's Austrian facility, along with the launch of an 800-volt hybrid drive and mirror-integrated driver monitoring systems for multiple global customers.
• Normal-Course Issuer Bid (NCIB) -- New NCIB authorized, permitting repurchase of up to 10% of the public float (about 25 million shares).
• Segment Margins -- Seating delivered a 10% sales increase and notable margin expansion; Body Exteriors & Structures posted margin improvements; Power & Vision margins declined due to segment-specific sales and tariff exposure, though slightly outperformed expectations.

SUMMARY

Magna International (NYSE:MGA) management emphasized that ongoing cost-saving and operational excellence measures contributed materially to improved margins and higher-than-expected free cash flow. The CFO detailed that net operational performance provided a 65 basis point margin tailwind, while ongoing equity income from joint ventures, particularly in China, added 30 basis points. Senior leadership stressed that the improved free cash flow outlook and lower capital intensity directly support further deleveraging and resumed share buybacks via the new NCIB. Management confirmed that commercial recoveries and customer agreements on tariffs are expected to materially benefit fourth quarter margins and support attainment of the updated annual guidance. Executives underlined the strategic significance of new Chinese OEM wins for the company's European operations and flagged that operational initiatives in progress should yield an incremental 35-40 basis points of margin improvement entering 2026.

• CEO Kotagiri said, "Serial production began this past quarter on two electric vehicle models for" and added, "volumes are expected to reach several million units annually" for new driver monitoring systems.
• CFO Fecassa confirmed, "Three of our four segments also posted improved adjusted EBIT margin year-over-year," and stated that the Power & Vision segment, while down from last year, "slightly ahead of our expectations for the quarter."
• Management described free cash flow at over 70% of adjusted net income at midpoints for 2025 (non-GAAP), attributing this to ongoing working capital improvements and reduced CapEx.
• Negotiations to recover tariff costs are "on track to complete substantially all remaining customer negotiations by year-end," according to Phil Fecassa, with explicit frameworks in place.
• Executives clarified that capital expenditures at reduced levels will not "curtailing CapEx at the expense of growth," according to Swamy Kotagiri noting recent cutbacks reflect prior EV investment cycles and current footprint optimizations.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• NCIB (Normal-Course Issuer Bid): A Canadian regulatory mechanism through which public companies can repurchase their own common shares on the open market up to a specified limit within a defined period.
• ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems): Automotive systems designed to aid the driver and increase vehicle safety, including features like lane keeping, collision avoidance, and advanced monitoring.
• DMS (Driver Monitoring System): In-vehicle technology that monitors driver distraction or drowsiness using cameras or sensors, often integrated with other safety systems.
• SKD (Semi-Knocked Down): A form of vehicle manufacturing and assembly where partially assembled kits are shipped to another location for final assembly, commonly used to optimize logistics or meet local content requirements.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. My name is Calvin, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Magna International Third Quarter 2025 Results Webcast. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Louis Tonelli, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Louis Tonelli: Thanks, Operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our conference call covering our Third Quarter 2025 results. Joining me today are Swamy Kotagiri and Phil Fecassa, our CFO. Yesterday, our Board of Directors met and approved our financial results for the Third Quarter of 2025 and our updated outlook. We issued a press release this morning outlining our results. You'll find the press release, today's conference call webcast, the slide presentation to go along with the call, and our updated quarterly financial review all in the Investor Relations section of our website at magna.com. Before we get started, just as a reminder, the discussion today may contain forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation.

Such statements involve certain risks, assumptions, and uncertainties which may cause the company's actual or future results and performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied in these statements.

Louis Tonelli: Please refer to today's press release for a complete description of our safe harbor disclaimer. Please also refer to the reminder slide included in our presentation that relates to our commentary today. With that, I'll pass it over to Swamy.

Swamy Kotagiri: Thank you, Louis. Good morning, everyone. I appreciate you joining our call today. Let's get started. I'm pleased to share a few key highlights from our strong third quarter. Our financial performance reflects continued solid execution across the business and meaningful progress on our performance improvement initiatives. Quarterly results exceeded expectations and showed year-over-year improvements. Sales grew 2%. Adjusted EBIT increased 3%. Adjusted EBIT margin expanded by 10 basis points despite a 35 basis point headwind from unrecovered tariffs. Adjusted diluted EPS rose 4% driven by stronger earnings and a lower share count. Free cash flow improved by nearly $400 million.

Looking ahead, we are raising our full-year outlook, including higher sales supported by improved light vehicle production and continued launch execution. An increase in the low-end and midpoint of our adjusted EBIT margin range reflects strong pull-through on higher sales and benefits from cost-savings initiatives.

Higher adjusted net income is primarily driven by increased adjusted EBIT and a lower effective tax rate. We remain focused on generating robust free cash flow and maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation. You can see this in our reduced capital spending outlook, now approximately $1.5 billion or 3.6% of sales, below our prior range and well below our initial outlook of $1.8 billion. With higher earnings and lower capital spend, we have increased our full-year free cash flow outlook by $200 million. This positions us to reduce our leverage ratio to below 1.7 by year-end. We also continue working with customers to mitigate tariff impacts.

During the quarter, we reached agreements with additional OEMs for recovery of 2025 net tariff exposures. Negotiations with remaining customers are ongoing, and we expect to substantially complete this by year-end.

Our outlook assumes less than a 10 basis point impact to 2025 adjusted EBIT margin from tariffs. Overall, these results reinforce our confidence in the strategy and our ability to deliver sustainable value for shareholders. I would like to take a moment to highlight some recent business awards and technology program launches. First, we were awarded complete vehicle assembly business with a China-based OEM, Shopang. This is a significant milestone. It marks the first time a Chinese automaker has chosen Magna's complete vehicle operations in Austria to serve the European market. Serial production began this past quarter on two electric vehicle models for this customer.

In addition, we launched production in the third quarter on a vehicle program for a second China-based OEM, with another program for that customer scheduled to start next year.

These wins reinforce Magna International's strong position in vehicle manufacturing and demonstrate the value of our flexible, state-of-the-art production process, which enables fast-to-market, high-quality vehicles for the European market. As we have for decades, we continue to launch innovative technologies that support our customers. This past quarter, we began launching a dedicated hybrid drive with a leading China-based OEM. Our 800-volt hybrid drive solution delivers a winning combination of efficiency, versatility, and comfort for consumers. Our drive line portfolio spans all powertrain configurations, from ICE and mild hybrids to high-voltage hybrids and full battery electric vehicles. This success underscores the strength of our building block strategy in powertrain.

In advanced safety, our mirror-integrated driver and occupant monitoring system is meeting growing global demand for DMS technologies. As you may recall, this product earned a 2024 Automotive News Pace Award for its innovation and safety impact.

We are launching this system with multiple customers worldwide, and volumes are expected to reach several million units annually. Next, let me cover our improved outlook. While the current environment makes forecasting more challenging than usual, we remain focused on what we can control and continue to adapt to evolving conditions. Compared to our previous outlook, we have increased our North American production forecast to 15 million units, up about 300,000 units. Roughly two-thirds of this increase reflects expected outperformance in the second half, with the remainder tied to adjustments to first-half estimates. We are holding Europe production relatively unchanged. For China, we have raised our estimate to 31.5 million units.

About half of this increase reflects second-half outperformance, and the other half relates to adjustments to first-half estimates.

We have also updated our foreign exchange assumptions to reflect recent rates, now expecting a slightly stronger euro, Canadian dollar, and Chinese RMB for 2025 compared to our prior outlook. We have increased our sales estimate range largely as a result of the expected higher light vehicle production, particularly in North America. We also raised the low-end and midpoint of our adjusted EBIT margin range and now expect margins between 5.4% and 5.6%, reflecting our solid Q3 results supported by continued execution in the Fourth Quarter. Looking sequentially, we expect Fourth Quarter margins to improve from the Third Quarter, driven primarily by commercial and net tariff recoveries from customers. As of today, we are on track to achieve those.

We updated our interest outlook due to some expense booked in the Third Quarter related to a discrete prior-year tax settlement.

We lowered our assumptions for taxes to approximately 24% from 25%, mainly due to better utilization of tax attributes and a favorable change in equity income. Factoring all that in, we increased adjusted net income to a range of $1.45 to $1.55 billion, largely reflecting increases in adjusted EBIT and the lower effective tax rate. We are reducing our capital spending outlook to approximately $1.5 billion, reflecting our continued efforts to optimize investment without compromising growth. As a result of higher earnings and lower capital spending, we have raised our free cash flow range by about $200 million to $1.0 to $1.2 billion, representing more than 70% of adjusted net income at the midpoints.

To summarize, we remain confident in our Fourth Quarter outlook, supported by strong year-to-date execution and ongoing operational discipline despite industry challenges.

We are on track to deliver the full-year outlook we shared in February, a testament to the resilience of our business and the capability of our global team. Before I turn the call over, I would like to welcome Phil Fecassa, who joined Magna as our new CFO in September. He brings extensive public company CFO, automotive, and industrial sector experience, as well as a proven track record of driving profitable growth and shareholder value creation through disciplined capital allocation. Phil succeeds Pat McCann, who stepped down from the CFO role and is serving in an advisory capacity until his retirement in February 2026.

I would like to thank Pat for his many contributions to Magna over his distinguished 26-year career. With that, I'll pass the call over to Phil.

Phil Fecassa: Thanks, Swamy. Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to be with you today. Magna is a company that I've admired for a long time for its history of innovation, unmatched capabilities, and deep relationships with customers. In my initial time here, I've seen our guiding principles in action, and I'm energized by the ownership mentality that our entire team brings to all that we do. We operate in a sector of the economy where the only constant these days is change. This creates opportunities, and Magna is well-positioned to capitalize on them. I'm excited to partner with Swamy and the team as we work to drive durable shareholder value. Now on to our results.

As Swamy indicated, we delivered a strong third quarter, up year-over-year and ahead of our expectations almost across the board. Comparing our third quarter to the same period last year, consolidated sales were $10.5 billion, up 2%.

This compares to a 3% increase in global light vehicle production. Adjusted EBIT was up 3% to $613 million. Our margin was 5.9%, up 10 basis points from last year, and that's despite a continued headwind from tariffs. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.33, up 4%. Free cash flow in the quarter was $572 million, up $398 million from last year, and well ahead of our expectations. Now I'll take you through some of the details. Let's start with sales. Looking at the market, North American, European, and Chinese light vehicle production were all higher in the quarter, and overall global production increased 3% compared to the third quarter of last year.

On a sales-weighted basis for Magna, light vehicle production increased an estimated 5%. Our third quarter sales were up 2% from last year.

Excluding currency, organic sales were up modestly but lagged the market in the quarter, as we had expected. The increase in our total sales largely reflects the launch of new programs, including Volkswagen's Skoda Elroq, the Ford Expedition Lincoln Navigator, and Cadillac Vestique, the favorable impact of foreign currency translation, and higher global light vehicle production. These were partially offset by lower production on certain programs, including end-of-production on the Chevy Malibu, the expected decline in complete vehicle assembly volumes, including end-of-production on the Jaguar E and I-PACE in Austria, and normal-course customer price concessions. Moving next to EBIT, third quarter adjusted EBIT was $613 million, which was up $19 million or 3% from last year.

Adjusted EBIT margin was 5.9%, up 10 basis points. In the quarter, our EBIT margin was impacted positively by 65 basis points from net operational performance improvements.

This reflects strong execution on our operational excellence and other cost savings initiatives, partially offset by higher labor and other input costs, as well as new facility costs. There were 30 basis points related to higher equity income, as several of our equity-method JVs, including China JVs, delivered strong performance in the quarter with higher sales and favorable mix, net favorable commercial items, and other productivity and cost improvements. These were partially offset by negative 50 basis points from discrete items. This is comprised mainly of lower net favorable commercial items compared to last year, and 35 basis points for tariff costs incurred but not yet recovered.

This is mainly timing, as we continue to pursue recovery from our customers, and we remain on track for tariffs to be only a modest headwind to margins for the full year, less than 10 basis points, as we said before.

Note that volume and other items were essentially flat in the quarter, as earnings on higher sales and foreign currency gains were substantially offset by the impact of higher compensation expense. Looking below the EBIT line, interest was $11 million higher than last year, due mainly to some discrete interest expense in the quarter for the settlement of a prior-year tax audit. Our third quarter adjusted tax rate was 26.5%, lower than last year, primarily due to the favorable year-over-year impact of currency adjustments recognized for U.S. GAAP. This was partially offset by an unfavorable change in our jurisdictional mix of earnings, increases in our reserves for uncertain tax positions, and a slight decrease in tax benefits related to R&D.

Net income was $375 million, $6 million or about 2% higher than last year, mainly reflecting the higher EBIT, partially offset by the higher interest expense.

Third quarter adjusted earnings per share was $1.33, up 4% from last year, reflecting the higher net income, as well as 2% fewer diluted shares outstanding, resulting from share buybacks over the past 12 months. Let's take a brief look at our segment performance for the quarter, which you can see summarized on this slide. Three of our four operating segments posted increased sales year-over-year, with a notable 10% increase in seating. The exception was complete vehicles, which was down 6%. This was largely expected and reflects the end-of-production of the Jaguar E and I-PACE at the end of 2024.

As Swamy mentioned earlier, we're excited about our recent new business wins with China-based OEMs, which is a new growth market for our complete vehicle business.

Three of our four segments also posted improved adjusted EBIT margin year-over-year, with notable margin expansion and strong incremental margins in body, exteriors, and structures. The exception was Power and Vision, where margins were down on a tough comp last year. In the quarter, P&V was impacted by lower sales on a local currency basis, lower net favorable commercial items, and higher tariff costs, as P&V has relatively more exposure to tariffs than other Magna segments. These were partially offset by continued productivity and efficiency improvements, higher equity income, and lower launch costs.

Despite being down year-on-year, P&V margins were slightly ahead of our expectations for the quarter, and we have held the low end of our EBIT margin range in our updated outlook for P&V. Our Power and Vision segment has differentiated technologies and a strong market position, and we're confident in the long-term margin outlook for this segment.

Turning to a review of our cash flow, in the third quarter, we generated $787 million in cash from operations, for changes in working capital, along with $125 million from favorable working capital movements. Investment activities in the quarter included $267 million for fixed assets and a $100 million increase in investments, other assets, and intangibles. Overall, we generated free cash flow of $572 million in the third quarter, higher than we were forecasting and $398 million better than the same period a year ago. The increase was driven mainly by lower capital spending and favorable working capital performance, and we continued to return capital to shareholders, paying dividends of $136 million in the quarter.

Our balance sheet and capital structure remained strong, with low single-A investment-grade ratings from the major credit rating agencies.

At the end of September, we had $4.7 billion in total liquidity, including $1.3 billion of cash on hand, which provides ongoing financial flexibility. During the quarter, we repaid $650 million of near-term maturing senior notes. Our refinancing is now complete, and we have no senior note maturities until 2027. Currently, our adjusted debt-to-EBITDA ratio is at 1.88 times, a little better than we anticipated coming into the quarter. We have been executing well on deleveraging throughout 2025. As Swamy said earlier, we expect to end the year below 1.7 times.

Lastly, subject to the approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange, our board yesterday approved a new normal-course issuer bid, or NCIB, authorizing the company to repurchase up to 10% of our public float, or around 25 million shares. We expect the NCIB to be effective in early November and remain in effect for a period of one year.

Since the initiation of the NCIB approved last year, Magna has repurchased 5.8 million shares, or roughly 2% of shares outstanding. This allowed us to return $253 million in cash to shareholders while still reducing leverage and navigating a challenging environment. Our new NCIB reinforces our commitment to share buybacks as a key component of our disciplined capital allocation strategy as we look ahead to 2026.

In summary, we delivered strong financial performance in the third quarter, which exceeded our expectations and showed both top and bottom-line improvements versus last year, despite the unfavorable impact of tariffs and commercial items in the quarter. We are benefiting from operational excellence initiatives across the company, and we expect these efforts to drive further margin upside over time. We have also increased our outlook to reflect our third quarter performance and expectations for a solid finish to the year. We are planning for higher sales, supported by an increase in expected light vehicle production, particularly in North America, and that is net of the expected fourth quarter impact of potential supply chain disruptions.

We raised the low end and midpoint of our adjusted EBIT margin range, and we increased our outlook for adjusted net income, largely due to the higher expected EBIT. We will continue to focus on free cash flow generation and capital discipline, as evidenced by a further reduction in our capital spending outlook. As a result of this and expected higher earnings, we have raised our 2025 free cash flow outlook by about $200 million. Lastly, we continue to mitigate the impact of tariffs. We settled with additional OEMs in the third quarter, and we are on track to complete substantially all remaining customer negotiations by year-end.

Let me close where I started and reiterate how thrilled I am to be part of the talented and dedicated Magna team.

This past quarter was a testament to the resilience of our business and the effectiveness of our strategy, and we're excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. With that, we'd be happy to take your questions.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. I would like to remind everyone to ask a question, please press the star button followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star one again. One moment, please, for your first question.

Your first question comes from the line of Etienne Ricard, VMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Etienne Ricard: Thank you and good morning. As we think about 2026, can you remind us what improvements to operating margins we should see from efficiency gains, and across which segments do you still have lots of potential to expand margins?

Phil Fecassa: Good morning, Etienne. I think the best way to look at this is a little bit going back into the previous calls where we talked about margin improvement from 2023-2024. We said we were going to do about 115 basis points, which was done. We talked about an additional 75 basis points split between 2025 and 2026. I can say the 2025 year is well on our way and on track, and we have good visibility for the 35 to 40 basis points going into 2026.

If you look at the 5.5%, which is the midpoint of the range, we're talking about finishing 2025, and add the operational improvements of the 35 to 40 basis points, it should give you a good foundation of how we are going into 2026.

On top of that, there are some programs which we have talked about which are coming in, like launching now into 2026 with new economics compared to what we had from the inflation-impacted timeframe of 2023 to 2025. Take all of that in. If you assume volumes to be flattish going from 2025 to 2026, we see the margins building on top of the exit of the 5.5% in 2025. The second part of the question, I think it's a little bit difficult to talk segment by segment, but I can tell you the operational activities are across the company, and that's what is giving us traction, and we are very optimistic about it.

Etienne Ricard: Okay. I appreciate the details. I also want to cover the lower pace of capital expenditures.

This is good for free cash flow for the near term, but could you please remind us why this is not. Expected to materially affect growth prospects in future years?

Phil Fecassa: Etienne, I think we have always said our long-term average CapEx to sales ratio is, I would say, the low to mid-fours. If you've looked at the CapEx spend in the past years going into 2022, 2023, 2024, we had a higher CapEx spend cycle, and that depends very much on the cycle that the OEMs go through in giving out programs, right? We went through a big cycle of EV releases at that point in time.

Now, with that investment behind us, we have been constantly talking about looking at different, as part of our continuous improvement and operational activities, looking at efficiencies, looking at consolidations and closing of facilities, looking at optimizing footprint.

All of that has given us the opportunity to optimize, but I can very clearly tell you that the team is very focused on not curtailing CapEx at the expense of growth. We are very much focused on organic growth with the right profitability.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Dan Levy of Barclays. Please go ahead.

Dan Levy: Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking the questions. First, maybe you could just talk through what you've embedded in your guidance and what you're seeing as it relates to some of these production disruptions out in the market between Ford, Novelis, JLR, and Nexperia. Just what's the impact to you and what's embedded in the guidance and how you're planning around those?

Phil Fecassa: Hi, Dan. Good morning. I think the Novelis and the Nexperia situation are still a little bit fluid, but we have taken into account based on the releases that we have, and there is visibility. Obviously, there is more color as we have conversations with the customers. We have taken all of that in the Q4, but there is a little bit of indirect impact too, right, because this situation is impacting OEMs and other suppliers. If that has an impact on the overall production, obviously, that could have an indirect impact. We have taken, to the best of our knowledge, the information that's been provided already in the outlook that we have given. Yeah.

Dan, if I could maybe just add, this is Phil. Good morning. The 15 million unit assumption that we have in for the full year for North America would reflect our estimate of lost production.

If you compare that number to maybe some of the external forecasts, it is a little bit lower, and that's where we would have embedded our assumption. Okay. Nexperia, and I know it's a wide range of potential outcomes, but we are a month in, and you do have a large electronics business. Is there any sort of range of outcomes that you might be gauging within the results? Yes. I think it impacts largely the electronics group, but it's not only for the electronics group, Dan. You can imagine there are associated systems in Powertrain and other parts of Magna.

We have a task force activity that's obviously very active in looking at the supply chain analysis, the runout dates. We have identified and released alternative parts, obviously in conversation with the customers. We're tracking the EMS suppliers. Wherever possible, there is purchase through brokers.

There is very constant communication with customers and suppliers. I don't know if we can get into every segment by segment, but I can say we have taken the impact to the extent we have seen, again, just not from the outside forecasters, but also program-by-program customer discussions.

Dan Levy: Okay. Got it. Thank you. Maybe as a follow-up, if you could just walk through the large implied step-up into margins in the Fourth Quarter that are within your guides. Pretty much all of the segments have a large step-up in margins. Perhaps you could just talk to the underlying strength in those.

Phil Fecassa: A couple of points, Dan, as we look through. Obviously, one is the traction of the operational activities that we've been talking about.

The second part is we have mentioned the second half of the year being heavy in tariff and commercial recoveries, and obviously, it's heavy-handed into the Fourth Quarter. We have substantially negotiated with the customers. There are some ongoing discussions, but we feel pretty good with the frameworks that are in place. We believe the roughly 10 bps impact due to tariff for the year, I think we feel comfortable at this point in time. I would say those are the key points. If you remember last time, we talked about 35 bps of the full-year EBIT coming in Fourth Quarter. That was very relevant, and we are trying to give cadence going from Q3 to Q4.

There's been a little bit of a stronger Q3. Now, if you look at the math of the.

Midpoint of the sales and the midpoint of the EBIT, I would still say we are in the low 30s as a % of EBIT for the full year. All in all, it's on track and looking good.

Operator: Great. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of James Picariello of BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

James Picariello: Good morning, everybody. I wanted to first ask about the latest Ford recalls that happened over the last few months regarding the rear-facing camera, which I believe is Magna's. Correct me on the number, but it's well north of a million vehicles, I think. I'm just curious how that maybe translates or not to future warranty spend for you guys. Yeah.

That's my first question.

Phil Fecassa: Good morning, James. Yes. We'll disclose the warranty expenses in our quarterly and annual reports, as you know. We are working constructively with our customers to reach resolution.

For the more recent announcements, James, I would say the information is still coming through. We need a little bit better understanding of the scope of the issue. As you can imagine, there are complexities in the system with various interfaces. We have to assess the overall situation. It's a little bit early from that standpoint. As we gain more information, we'll definitely be in a better position to come back and give you more granularity.

James Picariello: Got it. Understood. Thank you. My follow-up, just can you speak to the new main plates that are at Magna Steyr and what that could translate to in terms of future volumes, run-rate production, and then just latest thoughts on capital allocation with respect to share buybacks. Thank you.

Phil Fecassa: Yeah. James, again, I think one of the key things is the flexibility that we have in our Magna Steyr facility to be able to do multiple propulsion systems or multiple models to the same line. I don't think you'll see a significant increase, given the capability and the way it is set up and the business model that we have working with the customers there. We don't expect to see an uptick in capital because of those programs in Steyr. Now, with respect to the programs, as I mentioned in my remarks, Shopang, we are doing SKD of two models, and there is another Chinese OEM we are working with, which is due to launch a third model in there.

All in all, we are excited about that. If you remember, we have capacity of roughly 150,000 units, I would say.

If you look averaged out over years, long period of time, I would say we do well with about 100,000 to 120,000 units. Typically, that's what has been the average. We are continuing to work, launching these programs, but there are additional discussions ongoing to further optimize the facility there. Maybe to the point on share buybacks. Obviously, share buybacks remain an essential part of our capital allocation strategy at the company. As you know, we've kind of paused this year just given all the uncertainty that's been out there. We've shifted and focused instead on deleveraging, and that's gone very well. It's actually trending ahead of schedule.

We did announce, as you saw, the new NCIB, which would allow the company to purchase up to 10% of our shares over the next 12 months.

I think that the leverage coming down quicker than we anticipated, the strong free cash flow, which we expect to continue, set this up really well to lean into buybacks as we're looking ahead to 2026. I think that it will continue to factor in.

James Picariello: That sounds great. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Joe Spak of UBS. Please go ahead.

Joe Spak: Thanks. Good morning, Swamy, and welcome, Phil. Just was wondering if you could help me a little bit here. If I track the impact all year long on tariffs and then your comment of less than 10 bps impact for the year, it seems like you're counting on, I don't know, at least $40 million, maybe a little bit more recoveries in the fourth quarter. Is that math right?

Phil Fecassa: I know you said that was one of the drivers of the margin inflection in the fourth quarter. I just want to make sure we're properly calibrated there. I know you said you're making progress on negotiations, but is there any risk, do you think, to receiving them given some of the distractions at the customers? Good morning, Joe. I think if you look at the overall in our last calls, we mentioned roughly an annualized impact of about $200 million. As you know, the tariff situation started, Louis, I would say, March, April timeframe. You can take the $200 million annualized and get the number for the year.

I think in the fourth quarter there's more than $40 million, I would say. There are frameworks in place, Joe, which gives me the comfort to say we are working through. The framework is there.

The discussions have been collaborative, which gives me comfort. Is there a risk? Obviously, there could be, just as you know in this industry. Looking at the past history, looking at the status of where we are today, I feel comfortable. As we talk about 10 basis points, which is roughly in the $30 million range that we believe will be the tariff impact for 2025 that's unrecovered or unmitigated. Thank you. That's helpful. I know you're going to be pretty limited today in talking about next year. Just again, so we think about this now, it does seem like maybe you have this positive. In the fourth quarter, you're fairly neutral for the year.

Joe Spak: If we think about maybe for 2026, are things, are recoveries and headwinds sort of better aligned?

Phil Fecassa: The margin variation quarter to quarter related to this should be much reduced so we don't have this big one-half, two-half inflection like you did in 2025. Is that a good baseline to think about for next year, that it's a little bit more balanced? I think that will be the focus, Joe. Tariffs was a new thing this year, as you know, and we had to come up with the framework. I would say there is good groundwork and framework in place, this being the first year. As we are coming towards the end, that should help going into 2026 if you have to deal with it.

I think there is still going to be some amount of cadence topics going from one quarter to the other, just based on continuous improvements, the programs finishing, and the new programs coming, and so on and so forth.

We are in the process of the business planning now. I think by the time we come to February, we'll get a much better picture to at least give you somewhat of a sense of is there more lumpiness or it's getting back to normalcy.

Joe Spak: Thank you very much.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Tom Moran of RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Tom Moran: Hey, thanks. Hi, Swamy, Phil. Best wishes to Pat. My first question is on the seating margins as guided for Q4. I know a lot of the segments are seeing this, but it's especially magnified in seating. It seems, and I know this segment had some challenges in the past due to just some program-specific things.

Just curious if you could help us understand how much of this sequential improvement is coming from the tariff and commercial recoveries, and then how much is just underlying kind of business improvement. I know you also called out engineering coming down. I'm not sure if that impacts Q4 as well, but just curious on your thoughts on seating in Q4 and how we should think about that going forward.

Phil Fecassa: Yeah. Maybe I'll start. Tom. So on seating, obviously, really strong third quarter with revenue up and good margin performance. To your question, the margin improvement Q3 to Q4, the big contributors would be recoveries for tariffs because seating does have pretty large tariff exposure.

There are the recoveries we've got to get. There's also continued operational excellence initiatives there too.

If we had to point to the primary drivers of the margin, we do expect the implied guidance would say volumes would be down a little bit year on year and even down a little bit sequentially. We've got the volume headwind in there too, but overcoming it with the recoveries, commercial tariffs, and also continued focus on operational excellence. There's a little bit of engineering that's coming down. It should be a bit of a tailwind for us. That's for the fourth quarter in general, right? Yeah. I think, Tom, just maybe stepping back. I want to say seating is a good business.

Past couple of years, there was pressure on margins due to program-specific issues like end-of-production of Ford Edge. There was a cancellation of BV Explorer. Chevy Equinox moved from Ontario.

As you mentioned rightly, I've been talking about a European OEM program in North America, which had issues, and that's going to be behind us. The newer version with the right financial metrics launches in 2026 into 2027, and you'll see that additional impact going forward in 2027. I would say structurally, it's a really good business. It's got a strong position in China with China-based OEMs. All in all, the seating team has done a great job taking costs out as part of the operational excellence. I think we'll continue to see the margin improve going forward.

Tom Moran: Great. My follow-up has to do with Steyr and the Chinese OEM wins. Does this create a flywheel to sell other Magna products from other segments? Just curious if there were any kind of frictions from your European OEM customers, legacy ones, given the encroachment of Chinese OEMs into Europe is a very hot topic. I know some of the OEMs are kind of concerned about it.

Phil Fecassa: Thanks. I think, Tom, we would like to look at each other business that needs to stand on itself, right? Obviously, if there are opportunities for other parts, other systems of Magna to be there, yes. We're not going to make one dependent on the other, right? It's standing on its own merit. That's how we're going to look at it. Obviously, there could be opportunities, but we have to look at it.

To be honest, no, we have not seen any discussions with other OEMs. This is part of a business for Magna, and we have worked with various OEMs in the past, right, as you know.

We are following the same business model, same principles. We have not heard anything, and we are very close to the customers, as you know.

Tom Moran: Great. Thank you. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Tom.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Manuel Wagner of Roth Research. Please go ahead.

Manuel Wagner: Great. Thank you so much. Good morning. I appreciate your early thoughts on some of the operational performance that could continue into 2026. Another angle I was hoping to get an update on is, you, in the past, pointed to a large amount of new business that would launch and ramp up into 2026, boosting revenue pretty materially and obviously coming with some operating leverage and helping margins further into next year.

Can you maybe talk to us about how those launches are progressing, whether the magnitude of the revenue uptick into next year from those is still broadly similar to what you've mentioned in the past? Any other consideration on that launches and revenue uptake, please?

Phil Fecassa: Yeah. Good morning, Emmanuel. I think for 2025 going into 2026, when we talked about launches, we talked about it in the context of new economics, right? The terms of setting labor back, labor rates and labor discussions at the start of production, not when we won the program, as an example, and so on. We have specifically always talked about winning programs based on returns.

If you just look at all of those, that was the step up, I would say, or inflection in the profitability going with these new programs.

As far as the launches and the cadence goes, looking at our team, they're doing very good. We look at it very periodically, right, at a high amount of detail. I can say there is nothing that stands out today. All the launches are moving pretty good. We got to look at what the volumes are going to be on all the programs. It's something we're going to go through as part of our business planning process. What are the revised volume expectations for all the key programs? What does that do to. Our sales growth, etc.? That's still part of our planning process that's coming.

I think we can say we're doing a good job of controlling the controllable in our hand, but the externalities of volumes and so on, we still are going to go through and understand better in the business plan process.

Phil Fecassa: Some more to come in February on that. Now, looking forward to that. Quick follow-up on this, and then I wanted to ask you also about the Fourth Quarter drivers.

Manuel Wagner: Quick follow-up on this top line thing. Are we still talking about launches of decent magnitude? I understand the volume themselves would fluctuate, but we're not. Are you experiencing cancellations or major push-outs or anything like this?

Phil Fecassa: I wouldn't say, Emmanuel, anything of significance. We already talked in the past about the big EV programs that everybody knows about. Other than that, we haven't seen anything substantial beyond.

Manuel Wagner: My second question was, you've spoken earlier in the year about this big step up in margin between the first half and the second half, which you're reiterating today. Some of it was commercial recoveries. There were some engineering recoveries. There were some tariff recoveries in there.

Phil Fecassa: All that stuff seems to be on track. I think there was also a piece of the uptick that was supposed to be tied to warranty costs. Is that still also on track and helping towards the Fourth Quarter? In terms of looking at my comments from the last time to where we are, you're right. We need to keep our focus on, obviously, executing operationally. Yes, you mentioned commercial and tariff. That is still continuing, as I mentioned in my remarks. Nothing specific about warranty. If you're talking about there was one topic on seating in the First Quarter. I would say we're in a good place with respect to that. No surprise there. I would agree.

When you think of the Fourth Quarter, it's really continued execution on the operational excellence initiatives that's in there, the recoveries, commercial tariffs.

There's nothing material related to warranty baked into the Fourth Quarter, if you will. It's really mainly volumes holding up, executing well, and then continuing on the focus on cost controls. Maybe year over year, the warranty in 2025 has been higher. The outlook that we are talking about in performance is despite that increase in warranty.

Manuel Wagner: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Colin Langan of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Colin Langan: Oh, thanks for taking my question. Early, you mentioned sort of we have the 5.5 base for 2025. You have about 35 to 40 basis points of continued sort of performance help. That gets you to like 5.9, and then I think you mentioned some of the launches are coming in at more profits, and maybe you could go a bit higher.

Phil Fecassa: I believe the last update, I think from Q4, was 6.5 to 7.2. It seems still like a big jump forward kind of walking. Is that just kind of stale at this point, or should we still think of that as a relevant target as we think about 2026? Good morning, Colin. I think let us finish the business plan process. I think, as you know, one of the big variables is going to be volumes in the market, right? When I talk to you about the 35 to 40 basis points, obviously, that's again controlling what we have in our hands in terms of operations and executing. We feel pretty good about that.

Some of it will obviously depend on the volumes. Given all the activities that we've done in setting up the right cost structure, and it's a journey. We're not stopping there.

We continue to look at it with the discipline we have had in capital. We see a good path going into 2026. As volumes come, you'll see obviously the flow through to the bottom line to be much better. Yeah. I mean, to Swamy's point, if you look at where we said we thought North American volumes would be in February for 2026, it was like 15.4. If you look at where IHS is today, it's 14.7. Maybe by the time we get there, it's higher than that. I mean, that delta has to be—it's going to happen in February.

Colin Langan: Got it. Any update on how the ADAS business is performing? Because if I look at Power and Vision, sales seem actually fairly flat. I thought there was supposed to be some ADAS growth driving there. Is that still up?

Phil Fecassa: If it is, what is offsetting some of that weakness in there? As we go through, that segment has a lot of dynamic factors, as you can imagine: powertrain, EVs, and hybrids, and the ICE mix, and program changes. From an ADAS perspective, Colin, I would say there is some, again, industry dynamics there. The OEMs are continuing to still evaluate the architecture. Some decisions have been pushed out. From a China strategy in terms of looking at chips and their own perception strategy, and the Western OEMs continue to take a path. We've been a little bit cautious.

I would say the growth that we would have assumed maybe three or four years ago to what we are looking is a little bit dampened. The only reason is that we want to be cautious about how many platforms we want to work, right?

We have to be focused on picking a platform so that we can engineer once and deploy multiple times. There is a little bit more work to do on the ADAS side, again, based on the industry and OEMs and architectures and trends.

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

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Mark Delaney: Yes. Good morning. Thank you very much for taking the questions. I'd like to thank Pat for all his help and wish him the best going forward. Phil, looking forward to working with you going forward. I had a question on the complete vehicles business.

Swamy, you mentioned earlier in the call that 100,000 to 120,000 is a more comfortable level to be operated. I do want to clarify with the awards and momentum you've been seeing in that business with some of the Chinese-based OEM programs. Do you already have line of sight into volumes, getting the complete vehicle business to that kind of level in Austria, or do you need to win additional business to get there? The second part of the question: if you get to those sorts of volumes, what should we think about in terms of more normalized EBIT margin within the complete vehicle business? Because I think at times in the past, it was kind of 3%, 4%.

I'm wondering if it can get back to at least those sorts of levels, if not maybe even higher as you ramp some of this new business.

Phil Fecassa: Mark, good morning. I think a couple of points to mention. The 100,000 to 120,000 I mentioned was more a context of what the business has run typically in the past, right? We've been talking over the last year and a half where we restructured, or the team has done a great job restructuring to the current volumes and the current visibility. Even with the lower volumes running there, they've been able to maintain the margin. That's one thing to note. The second one, as you know, this business or this segment runs on a different business model. It's a little bit on capacity utilization. The risk exposure is a little bit different or lower.

When you talk about margins, as you know, besides complete vehicle assembly, in that segment, we also have engineering revenue, right? Which has a little bit of ups and downs depending upon the seasonality.

That changes the EBIT percentage depending on how much of what mix, right? We feel pretty comfortable that we have the right cost structure or we have optimized. We are not keeping the cost structure, hoping new business will come. We'll continue to look for the right opportunities there. The engineering continues. It's a good strength of ours, and we'll look at it. I feel to expect somewhere in the mid-2s to a 3% range would be normal. Okay. That's helpful on the margins. I guess just in terms of the volumes, maybe it's not quite at those sorts of volumes as it was historically, but the business has operated to be profitable at lower levels.

Mark Delaney: Is that the right understanding? Exactly. Okay. The other point, the other question I had was also on the complete vehicle business. With some of the AV upfitting work that Magna is doing, I wanted to check, is that reported within complete vehicles or another part of the business? We realize the volume of AVs are still small, but imagine that might be an opportunity for just some engineering collaboration. Just wanting to understand how impactful some of the AV announcements where Magna is doing AV upfitting, just kind of how big that might be for your business today. Thanks.

Phil Fecassa: Yeah, Mark, you're right. The upfitting of the full autonomous vehicles is in this segment. It's an interesting one. Continue to look at it, look at the business model, and work with them.

We are at the table is the best way to put it, and we have an advantage of being at the table.

We're also looking at what's the value that we can bring, and we do, I think, from an engineering perspective and the expertise of integrating vehicles. There is a possible opportunity there, but too early to quantify.

Mark Delaney: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Goldman of Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Jonathan Goldman: Hi, good morning, team, and thanks for taking my questions. Maybe we can circle back to 2026, and I respect you're still in the planning stages. Swamy, you alluded to maybe flat next year in terms of volumes. Rather than put a fine point on any number, what's your expectation in terms of production being aligned with sales?

Phil Fecassa: Good question, Jonathan. I think you're asking me to look at the crystal ball a little bit. I think our assumption has been always to look at bottoms up, what we get from our customers, the releases, and our own information that's available at Magna, and then triangulate with the external forecasters, right? If the tariffs and the price continues the way it is versus being passed on to the consumers, there might be a pressure on the sales side of things. Don't know. That is something we have to see at this point in time, and this is just me personally looking at it, and we are looking, it could be flattish. Like Louis mentioned a few minutes ago, in the next few months, we get a little bit more visibility on that.

I mean, inventory levels in North America in particular are pretty healthy levels. It's not reasonable to believe that they're going to bring those numbers, that they're going to work off inventory.

I don't think that's an issue. Whether they decide to build more than they sell, it's really up to the OEMs. We can't really determine.

Jonathan Goldman: Yeah, that's a fair comment. I guess my second question then is on CapEx, thinking about it maybe going forward. I think you've cut CapEx guidance four times in a row, which is pretty impressive. I think this year you're going to be at the mid-3s. Should that be the appropriate rate going forward if we're thinking about modeling CapEx in 2026 and beyond?

Phil Fecassa: No, Jonathan. Like I said, I would look at the four to four and a half or low fours to mid-fours being the long-term average. That's kind of how we look at business. Like I said, it's important for us, the organic growth, free cash flow, it's a good balance.

Given we had two or three years of high CapEx, we have been super focused on looking at everything, which programs and how there is enough uncertainty in the market too. That discipline will stay on. I think the best way to look at it is over a longer period of time, do we average the four to four and a half? With that said, going into 2026, I would look at the low fours as a good way to start. Which doesn't mean we're not going to stop further optimizing it, but I would say that's a good starting point.

Jonathan Goldman: Okay. Makes sense. I'll get back with you. Thanks for taking my question.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Michael Glen of Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Michael Glen: Hey, good morning. Swamy, can you provide an update in terms of how your customers are viewing the cross-border supply chains in North America right now? Is the approach to auto parts moving to the U.S. to become more U.S.-centric something you're hearing more about and how Magna is positioned in the U.S. right now from a capacity perspective?

Phil Fecassa: Good morning, Michael. I think the customers are, I would say, taking a very calm approach of figuring out, as you know, our industry is a long cycle. What we are producing today has been decided three or four years ago.

I think the big topic has been how to mitigate what we have in our control, like increasing the USMCA content, looking at the supply base, looking at vertical integration, and so on and so forth. That's where the focus is. I haven't seen any substantive changes that will impact right away, but are they looking at scenarios two or three years down the road as they contemplate new models and new vehicles? Yes. The good thing is, as Magna, we have a footprint in the U.S., and we'll look at how we can optimize working with the customer. This is a long-term thinking process rather than a reaction to what's happening now and today.

Michael Glen: Okay. Just to follow up on that, are you able to give some thoughts into the pluses and minus to Magna redomiciling to the U.S.?

Phil Fecassa: That's not on the table, and we have not considered it. Magna is a Canadian company that has been headquartered there. We're a global company. We have a great footprint and a great employee base. Like I said, our focus is right now on grinding through and being as flexible as possible.

Michael Glen: Excellent. Thank you.

Swamy Kotagiri: So thank you. Thanks, everyone, for listening in today. We continue to execute, and we remain focused on the initiatives that are driving value for our customers and shareholders. Including operational excellence is a big focus, new launches, capital discipline, and free cash flow generation. We plan to both get back within our target leverage ratio and are committed to our capital allocation strategy, including share buybacks. We remain highly confident in Magna's future. Thank you for listening, and have a great day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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