LISI GROUP - Integrated report 2020

internal measures, added to the charge deferral mechanisms offered by the government – which played an important role – made it possible to maintain positive free cash flow each month. Has the crisis impacted the division’s refocusing strategy? On the contrary, this crisis has confirmed our strategic choices. The objective has therefore not been called into question and the pace of repositioning, initiated in recent years with the acquisitions of Termax and Hi Vol Products in the US and the sale of the Saint-Florent site in France, has accelerated: we finalized the buyout of the minority stake in Termax in July, one year ahead of schedule, and at the end of June we sold our hot forging site in Vöhrenbach, Germany. We will continue to develop our portfolio of clipped solutions, the result of our collaboration with the Termax teams, intended in particular for electrified vehicles. In mechanical components, we will increase our market share with the penetration of new customers in our three markets in North America, China and Europe. Finally, during this difficult period, we maintained our investments in research and innovation on products intended for electric vehicles. Progress has been made in the development of solutions related to the issues of weight reduction and multi-material assembly (see page 37). What was the effect of the crisis on the market? After the markets collapsing during the first lockdown – sales fell by 80% in China in February, then in Europe and the US in April and May in almost equivalent proportions – government stimulus plans helped to relaunch consumption effectively. The results have sometimes been spectacular, as in China, which has returned to its pre-crisis level. These plans have also yielded good results in Europe and the US. However, despite this rebound, we ended 2020 with a 23% decline in our business volumes. Mechatronics, a market of the future On-board mechatronics is becoming more and more present in vehicles and represents significant development potential. These interior mobility systems, powered by an electric motor, transform a rotary movement into linear movement in order to set seats in motion, for example. These mechanisms are based on a new generation of pinions and drive screws, on which LISI AUTOMOTIVE has positioned itself and which require very high levels of precision and mechanical resistance. In 2020, the division was selected for the first part of the government automotive recovery plan with the Lead Screw. LISIAUTOMOTIVE 5 _ PERFORMANCE RESULTS © Peugeot