BorgWarner Inc.Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-10-29 12:13:14.0

Tags: Call Transcript, Wachovia Corp., Earnings, Seeking Alpha, Call Transcript, Wachovia Corp., Earnings, Seeking Alpha, Borg Warner Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions). The first question is from Rich Kwas with Wachovia.

Richard Kwas - Wachovia

Hi, good morning everyone.

Tim Manganello

Hi, Rich.

Robin Adams

Good morning, Rich.

Richard Kwas - Wachovia

Robin, with the restructuring activity, you going to be running around a 7% operating margin. What do you think about longer term in getting back to the 8% plus operating margin over the next two to three years, assuming that production does recover slowly?

Robin Adams

Rich, I wish I could give you some timing on when we'll get back to a little bit more normalized level of activity around the globe from an economic perspective. But when we do, and I don't know, Tim's a little closer to economic data than I am. He's a whiz on this stuff. But I don't know if it's 2011, but when we get back to that level of activity, we certainly expect our operating income margins back to the 8.5% to 9% level.

There's been no fundamental change in this business that when production levels get back to the more normalized level. There's no reason that we shouldn't be back in the 8.5% to 9% level and that's what we expect.

Tim, I don't know, maybe you can help.

Tim Manganello

Yes, we don't expect anything in terms of recovery until sometime in 2010. But let me answer your question, Rich, from a slightly different angle. I've got a couple of operating issues inside this company which are dragging us down a little bit. We're working to fix those operating issues if I can, and when we get those operating issues cleared up, that's actually going to help our margins a little bit, in spite of the fact that the economy may be flat or the production schedule's going to be flat.

Robin alluded to one of them in Europe and some of our launches in Europe. So, we've got some low hanging fruit that we're going after in addition to just over and above whatever we're doing in terms of resizing or restructuring.

Tim Manganello

One last thing, Rich, if you do the math on kind of what I laid out for 2009, you'll see that we expect a margin improvement in 2009 versus 2008. Not that 8.5% to 9% level, but moving back to that direction.

Richard Kwas - Wachovia

Okay, and then Tim, on the turbocharger front, backlog pretty good, just with kind of the competitive landscape out there, there seems to be a push from the percent of the Japanese competitors, I just wanted to get your thoughts on how you view your position right now. I know the market is growing, there is lot of opportunity for everyone, but how do you view risk of pricing pressure over the next several years?

 

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