MILAN (Reuters) – CNH Industrial sees protracted supply chain issues this year as the vehicle maker on Tuesday presented its last quarterly results before it split in two at the beginning of the year, with a 23% drop for its operating profit.
Chief Executive Scott Wine said the group had to manage supply chain issues in the fourth quarter, specifically microchip shortages.
“While these pressures are likely to persist, so is our team’s demonstrated ability to overcome them,” he said in a statement on Tuesday .
CNH Industrial completed at the beginning of January a plan to spin-off its truck, bus and engine operations, now listed separately as Iveco Group under CEO Gerrity Marx.
CNH said its adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) from industrial activities stood at $401 million in the October-December period, versus a $520 million result a year earlier.
The company, however, saw its net sales from industrial activities grow 30% last year, topping its forecast for a growth in the lower end of the 24%-28% range, and generated a free cashflow of over $1.75 billion in the period.
As it focused on its agriculture and construction machinery business after the Iveco demerger, CNH on Tuesday guided for an increase in net sales from industrial activities of between 10%-14% this year.
Milan listed shares in CNH Industrial and Iveco recovered from day’s lows they hit just after results were published. By 1345 GMT, CNH shares were up 0.4%, Iveco shares were down 1%.
CNH proposed a divided on last year’s results of 0.28 euros ($0.32) per share, equal to a total cash payout of around 380 million euros, or $430 million, the company said.
In a separate statement on its pro-forma 2021 results, Iveco Group said its net revenues of industrial activities grew 21% versus the previous year to 15.52 billion euros, while adjusted EBIT from industrial activities stood at 302 million euros versus a 89 million euro loss in 2020.
CEO Marx said expectations for this year were positive.
“We closed 2021 with a 77% increase in our worldwide order intake, and we are striving to run our production footprint at its full capacity,” he said in the statement.
Presenting its business plan in November, Iveco targeted revenue of between 16.5-17.5 billion euros by 2026.
($1 = 0.8766 euros)
(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Keith Weir)
