Valeo CEO Aschenbroich to step down after 2021

PARIS -- Longtime Valeo CEO Jacques Aschenbroich will step down from the post at the end of 2021, but will remain chairman, as the supplier moves to split the two positions.

Aschenbroich, 66, who was named CEO in 2009 and added the chairman title in 2016, will be succeeded in the chief executive role by Chief Operating Officer Christophe Perillat, Valeo said Tuesday. He will remain chairman until May 2023. 

Valeo said in 2019 when Aschenbroich was reappointed to a new term that it would separate the positions of chairman and CEO. 

Aschenbroich was named an Automotive News Europe Eurostar in 2016.

Aschenbroich, who has an engineering degree from the School of Mines in Paris, held positions in the French government and with the glass maker Saint-Gobain Group before joining Valeo as CEO in 2009. He is a director at the bank BNP Paribas.

Perillat, 55, a graduate of the engineering university Ecole Polytechnique, worked in the aeronautics industry in France and the U.S. before joining Valeo in 2000. He held various management positions before being named COO in 2011.

Valeo separately reported that global sales in the third quarter were 4.39 billion euros ($5.16 billion), a decrease of 8 percent from the third quarter in 2019, but it revised forecasts for the second half upward after a sharp rebound in production in the quarter.

Aschenbroich cited strict cost controls and a rebound in China for the improved outlook.

“The measures implemented have enabled the group to reduce structural costs in all our host countries and across all our businesses,” he said in a statement.

At the end of September, Valeo reached a cost-cutting agreement with two French unions that guarantees no factory closures or forced layoffs for the next two years. 

Valeo said in a statement on third quarter sales that it had outperformed production by four percentage points in the first nine months of the year.

The supplier’s strongest categories were cameras and other driving assistance (ADAS) products, 48 volt mild hybrid components, and LED lighting systems.

Automotive production will fall 3 percent in the second half, Valeo said, in revising upward its forecasts.

The supplier is predicting that earnings before interests, depreciation, taxes and amortization (EBITDA) will be 12 percent of sales, up from an earlier forecast of “around 10 percent of sales.”

It is also expecting free cash flow of more than 600 million euros, up from an earlier forecast of more than 400 million euros.

By region, original equipment sales grew by 11 percent in China, which makes up 15 percent of Valeo sales. But they fell by 3 percent in Europe, which makes up 46 percent of sales; by 4 percent in North America, which accounts for 21 percent of sales; and by 20 percent in Asia outside of China, which accounts for 15 percent of sales.

Valeo ranks No. 10 on the Automotive News Europe list of the top 100 global suppliers, with worldwide sales to automakers of $18 billion in 2019. The Paris-based company makes components for automated and connected driving, electric powertrain systems, thermal systems, wipers, and connectors and sensors.