Garrett Motion Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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July 29, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Strong second-quarter performance: Net sales rose 7% year over year to $976 million, while Adjusted EBIT increased 22% to a record $152 million, with margin expanding 200 basis points to 15.6%.
  • Positive Sentiment: Garrett generated $122 million of Adjusted Free Cash Flow, repaid $50 million of term debt, reduced net leverage to 1.8 times, and returned capital through $28 million of share repurchases and $15 million of dividends.
  • Positive Sentiment: Full-year 2026 guidance was raised: The company now expects approximately $3.8 billion of sales, $580 million of Adjusted EBIT at a 15.3% margin, and $430 million of Adjusted Free Cash Flow, with the EBIT outlook lifted by $20 million at the midpoint.
  • Positive Sentiment: Industrial demand is accelerating, particularly for power-generation turbochargers, with full-year industrial sales now expected to reach about $200 million versus roughly $100 million-plus previously anticipated; Garrett also secured new genset awards, including its first MEG200 data-center power-generation award.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Management acknowledged softer light-vehicle production and continued macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, although share gains and stronger commercial-vehicle and industrial demand are expected to offset much of the weakness. Zero-emission initiatives—including electric powertrain, e-cooling, and air-compressor programs—continue progressing, with initial data-center production expected between late 2027 and early 2028.
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Earnings Conference Call
Garrett Motion Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

Hello, my name is Bailey, and I will be your operator this morning. I would like to welcome everyone to the Garrett Motion second quarter 2026 financial results conference call. This call is being recorded, and a replay will be available later today. After the company's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. I would now like to hand over the call to Cyril Grandjean, Garrett's Vice President, Investor Relations, and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Bailey, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us to review Garrett Motion's second quarter 2026 financial results. Our presentation and press release are available on the investor relations section of our website. Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Please refer to our SEC filings, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, for a discussion of factors that could cause our results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Today's presentation also includes certain non-GAAP measures which we use to help describe how we manage and operate the business. Please review the disclaimers on slide two of our presentation, as the content of our call will be governed by this language. With me today are Olivier Rabiller, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Sean Deason, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Speaker 1

Olivier will begin by sharing highlights from another strong quarter, both in terms of financial performance and strategic wins. Sean will then review our second quarter financial results and updated 2026 outlook. With that, I'll turn the call over to Olivier.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Cyril, and thank you all for joining us today. Indeed, I'm very pleased to report another strong quarter driven by growth, solid operating performance, and margin expansion. We delivered growth across all of our verticals. Net sales were $976 million, up 7% on a reported basis and 5% at constant currency. Against a backdrop of lower light vehicle production in the quarter, Garrett growth reflects continued share of demand gains in light vehicle, recovery in commercial vehicle, and increased demand for industrial. So far this year, we sold over $80 million of turbos for industrial applications, and we expect further growth in the second half with a view that is now about $200 million of sales in industrial for the full year.

Speaker 2

In the second quarter, we kept on with our disciplined execution and thorough productivity actions, enabling us to deliver strong operating performance, achieving a record Adjusted EBIT of $152 million and an Adjusted EBIT margin of 15.6%. Along with this operating performance, we generated a healthy Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $122 million, and in line with our capital allocation framework, we repurchased $28 million of common stock and paid $15 million in dividends. In light of our first half performance, we are now raising our outlook, Sean will take you through all the details later on. Let me now turn to slide four to discuss Garrett's continued progress across our differentiated technology. We continue to build momentum across our turbo portfolio and secure multiple gasoline awards this quarter, including a large program in North America.

Speaker 2

During the quarter, we also secured several power generation awards, as well as the first award for the Garrett MEG200 turbo for data center power generation, one of the largest turbo ever made by Garrett. Turning to zero-emission technologies, we also made further progress during the quarter. We kicked off pre-development activity for commercial vehicle electric powertrain solution with a Japanese truck manufacturer. On the passenger vehicle side, our high-speed E-Powertrain continues to generate positive test results and encouraging feedback from OEMs. Further to our previously announced E-Cooling partnership, we see growing interest across multiple HVAC OEMs for various target applications, and we are now in active dialogue with all of them to support this growing opportunity.

Speaker 2

The strong progress we are making both on the turbo and the zero emission applications emphasize the strategy that was presented to all of you during our technology and investor day in May. With that, I will now turn the call to Sean, who will walk you through the financial results and outlook.

Speaker 3

Thanks, Olivier. Good morning, everyone. Let me begin on slide five. As Olivier noted, we delivered another strong quarter of financial performance. Net sales were $976 million, supported by sequential growth in commercial vehicle, industrial, diesel, and aftermarket. Adjusted EBIT was $152 million, which equates to an Adjusted EBIT margin of 15.6%, representing both a year-over-year and a sequential improvement from strong volume conversion and positive operating performance. Adjusted Free Cash Flow was $122 million, in line with expectations, demonstrating continued strong earnings-to-cash conversion. Turning now to slide six. This bridge highlights our Q2 net sales performance by product category compared with the prior year. In the quarter, net sales increased by $63 million year-over-year or 7% on a reported basis and 5% on a constant currency basis with growth across all verticals.

Speaker 3

We continue to benefit from share demand gains in gasoline, strong demand for our light commercial vehicle diesel applications, and recovery of aftermarket. We also continue to see growth in the commercial vehicle and industrial vertical, up 10% in the quarter. This increase is driven by on-highway demand in China and, as Olivier mentioned earlier, growing demand for our industrial turbo applications, primarily in power generation, a trend that we expect to continue. Turning now to slide seven. You see our Q2 Adjusted EBIT performance compared with the prior year. Adjusted EBIT was $152 million in the quarter, up $28 million, and Adjusted EBIT margin was 15.6%, representing an increase of 200 basis points year-over-year, including an unfavorable foreign currency impact of 80 basis points.

Speaker 3

These improvements are primarily driven by increased volumes across all verticals and a favorable mix from strong growth in commercial vehicle, industrial, and aftermarket. Additionally, operating performance contributed $14 million in the quarter as our productivity measures continue to ramp up. Turning now to slide eight. You see our Adjusted EBIT to Adjusted Free Cash Flow bridge. We generated Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $122 million in the quarter, representing a strong Adjusted Free Cash Flow conversion of 80%. All bridging items were in line with our expectations. Turning to slide nine. We ended the quarter with $788 million of total liquidity, including $630 million of available capacity under our revolver and $158 million of unrestricted cash. We made a voluntary early repayment of $50 million on our term loan during the quarter, further strengthening the balance sheet.

Speaker 3

With no near-term debt maturities and net leverage of 1.8 times, down from the prior quarter, we remain in a strong liquidity position. Turning to slide 10. In the second quarter, we paid $15 million of dividends and repurchased $28 million of common stock under our $250 million authorization, bringing year-to-date repurchases to $115 million. We continue to return capital to shareholders in line with our capital allocation framework, returning approximately 75% of Adjusted Free Cash Flow to shareholders over time through dividends and share repurchases. The amount of which can vary based on market conditions and other factors. As Olivier noted earlier, the board declared a third quarter dividend of $0.08 per share, payable in September. Let's now turn to slide 11, where I'll discuss our 2026 outlook.

Speaker 3

We are increasing our 2026 outlook across all measures to reflect strong first half performance and a positive mix trend, which we expect to continue. While we have updated the industry outlook to reflect softer light vehicle demand, we expect to continue to benefit from share demand gains and accelerating demand for our commercial vehicle and industrial applications, contributing positively to net sales performance. Operating performance will continue to contribute to margin improvement through the balance of the year. Our foreign currency assumptions have also been updated to reflect a stronger US dollar to euro exchange rate. At the midpoint, our updated outlook implies net sales for the year of $3.8 billion, or 4% growth at constant currency. Adjusted EBIT of $580 million, representing a 15.3% margin, and Adjusted Free Cash Flow of $430 million. Now turning to slide 12.

Speaker 3

This bridge summarizes a full-year increase of $20 million in Adjusted EBIT versus our prior midpoint outlook, driven by stronger product mix and operating performance, and partially offset by unfavorable foreign currency impacts. Let me now turn the call back to Olivier for closing remarks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Sean. Let me turn to slide 13, and this is a reminder of what we've shared with all of you in May during our Technology and Investor Day. Garrett's long-term strategy is clear. We are leveraging our differentiated technologies and proven execution model to continue driving shareholder value. Let me wrap up on the final slide. First, I'm very pleased with the performance we delivered for the second quarter, with growth across all verticals and year-over-year operating performance. We continue to secure awards for our differentiated turbo technologies, including several wins in commercial vehicle and industrial turbochargers. We made further progress in zero-emission technologies and see growing interest across multiple HVAC OEMs for various target applications. We secured our first production award for our centrifugal air compressor technology.

Speaker 2

Finally, based on the strong start of the year, we raised our full-year outlook, reflecting the strength of our execution, our confidence in the trajectory of the business. Thank you for your time. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw the question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from James Mulholland with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Speaker 4

Hi. Good morning, guys, thanks for taking my question. I was hoping we could start out on commercial vehicle. We've seen over the last few weeks, several European CV manufacturers are speaking to strength in their order books. Volvo and Traton both raised their order deliveries. Is there a timeline that we can expect these improved order books to flow through European Class 8s? Conversely, off-highway in North America seems relatively stable, but I was wondering if you could update us in a little bit more detail on what you're seeing there for the rest of the year, then maybe a glimpse into 2027.

Speaker 2

Yeah. I would say, James, it's a very good question. Let's open up a little bit beyond Europe and the U.S. As you can see, we've seen growth in commercial vehicle in the first half on highway, I think we've been clear that we see a significant part of that growth coming also from off-highway industrial, that's mostly coming from the industrial side. I would say on highway, in H1, it was not entirely driven by Europe. We've seen that coming up from China. If Europe now picks up, balances China, I think all that is good signal for us, we'll see the way it develops in the second half. That's only one element of the total picture. When it comes to the growth we experience, indeed, the reason why we are betting on the number on sales in industrial.

Speaker 2

The growth we experience, most of it this first half was coming from industrial, which is the bigger turbos, the genset applications and beyond.

Speaker 4

On off-highway?

Speaker 2

Off-highway, quite frankly, we see the same thing as what you'd see. On off-highway and off-highway in this stage, in that respect, I need to be a bit more precise. I need to say, constructions and agricultural. It's in line with the comment you made.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. I guess on light vehicle, you've downgraded your industry outlook for the year, but raised your overall sales. A lot of that it sounds like it's coming from share gains. I was wondering if you could contextualize what you're seeing there for the rest of the year to drive that raise. Is that sort of share gain something we should expect going forward? I think in past you've soft guided to half a percent, 1% a year, but that feels like it's a little bit stronger. Is that just a function of this period given launches and cadence, or is that something that could be a little bit more lasting going forward in the short term?

Speaker 2

No, I would say, this is also the result of what the strong performance we did in H1 as well. If you look at it with these eyes. We have a strong performance in H1, and indeed, we are not expecting that performance to collapse in H2. If you put everything together, it's one of the driver of the raise. We are still extremely prudent about the underlying of the macros. The current geopolitical situation, the current macros are not exactly the clearest that you would expect when you look further for the end of the year. We felt that we were significantly confident so that we would translate some of the share gains that we've demonstrated in H1 into the performance of H2.

Speaker 4

Great. Okay. Thank you very much, guys.

Operator

Our next question comes from Jake Scholl with BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, guys. I just wanted to take a closer look at the genset turbo awards you announced. First, can you talk a little bit about your relative positioning on diesel generators versus natural gas generators? Is there any way to think about the impact of these new awards on next year's revenue? Then also, can you just remind us what size of generator is supported by this largest MEG that you're awarding now? Thank you.

Speaker 2

Jake, this is a good question. That is an interesting technical question, the balance between natural gas and diesel. I would say that traditionally, the company has been quite strong on diesel side, and we've been gaining shares on the gas side for the last few years. It's not like it's a different technology. It's different arrows. We got to develop that, and now we are, I would say, quite competitive on both sides. When we win a business on those big engines, clearly, even if the timeline is getting shorter and shorter because of the demand growing up If we get significant revenue in one year, that's a little bit of a stretch. Usually, it's taking a little bit longer than that.

Speaker 2

Remember, the cycle time to develop a car is about three years, and the cycle time to develop an engine, although it could be shorter than three years, in a year, that would be very quick. We'll see. This single award will not be a significant contributor to 2027, but it's part of all the trajectory that we have announced. What we see today, to put that back in perspective, is that the number of awards that we secured already for the last few years is what is generating our performance on industrial today and enabling us to tell you if last year we said that industrial, we were expecting to be at $100 million plus for the year.

Speaker 2

This year, we are telling you already, we see that we have a trajectory towards $200 million for the year, which I think is a little bit ahead of what we even shared with you two months ago. The trajectory is the result of all the applications that you are accumulating over time. I'm very excited about this 200 MEG, we should not expect that it represents a high share of our revenue next year. We have many other applications at the same time that we've launched already.

Speaker 5

Yeah. Thank you. That's very helpful. Then, for the E-Compressor, can you talk about just the types of opportunities that you guys are pursuing right now? Obviously, you've already secured a few awards, in the HVAC space. The program with Ingersoll Rand shows there are applications beyond just cooling. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Well, first, in cooling, there is a full spectrum of application. If you remember what we presented, in terms of size of the cooling compressors, from, I would say small industrial sites up to the big E-Cooling compressors, even the biggest one that we did not show in May, for the big cooling needs, which those days are around data centers. Cooling is a very strong underlying macro that goes far beyond data centers themselves. That's why we like that field. Today, clearly that field is a lot of various applications, with different use cases. When we get to air compressor, we are indeed pleased. We have an innovation process in the company that helps us screen the match of the technology building blocks that we have versus the needs of the different industries.

Speaker 2

That's our job, and we do that very often during the year to re-challenge the taxonomy of the different industries to understand how far we can bring those differentiated elements into new verticals, and air compressor was one of them. Believe me, there are some others on the table. We'd like to talk about it once we've committed to that vertical, with a clear offering that we can go public with in the sense that now we put the resources of the company behind it versus, we pull it off the innovation pipeline process into the production process.

Speaker 5

Thank you, congrats on another great quarter.

Speaker 2

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Jake.

Operator

Our next question comes from Arjun Gupta with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking the question. This is Arjun Gupta from JP Morgan. I wanted to follow up on the train question. Previously, you've talked about the HVAC opportunity extending to data centers. I think at Investor Day, you talked about 2028 start of production. Curious if you can give us an update on that and how that's tracking, the testing compliance, et cetera. I have a quick follow-up. Thanks.

Speaker 2

That's a very good question. The Investor Day was When was it? Eight weeks ago.

Speaker 2

Believe me, we have not deviated from what we told you at the Investor Day. We are fully committed to bring those technology to the marketplace. In the meantime, we had a number of meetings and points with our customers. As we've said earlier today, we are working with a full scope of customers that go beyond what we've announced so far for very various applications. I'm very pleased with the progress we are making. Indeed, we like speed, so anything we can do to anticipate all of that, we'll do it. I think we said during the Investor Day that the first production will be 2027, not 2028.

Speaker 6

For the data center as well? I thought the 2027 was, the train was more industrial and not specific to data centers. If you could clarify that.

Speaker 2

I would say it's between the end of 2027 for data centers and beginning of 2028.

Speaker 6

Understood.

Speaker 2

The first product we ship will be in 2027. That's for sure.

Speaker 6

Understood. That's helpful. Just following up on the commercial vehicle, industrial. You flagged in prior quarters, particularly in China, you know that some of those products maybe start at lower margins. As you think about the next few quarters, how should we weigh those dynamics against each other, the growth and traction you're seeing versus the margin profile? Any way to like parse that out as you get more traction and the products start shipping there? Thanks.

Speaker 2

I'm not sure on the commercial vehicle side, the margin is hugely different from China to the rest of the world. That's for sure on the passenger vehicle side. If there is a change of mix and dynamics between one region and the other, that would be a small one.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Just to add to that, overall, on a volume perspective, again, light vehicle is down, and if you look at our guide, it would indicate that we're going to have slightly lower volumes on light vehicles in the second half, but still expect to outperform the market. We were above where we grew. The light vehicle market shrunk. In that regard, we do see a lower volume, but an enhanced margin with a slightly better mix. Overall, our guide is more to a full-year margin of 15.2% to 15.3%. Again, being cautious about the macroeconomic overlay as well.

Speaker 2

Yeah, specifically to commercial vehicle, I don't see it making a huge-

Speaker 3

Right

Speaker 2

Difference between the two.

Speaker 3

That's correct. No. The CV margins tend to be fairly stable across all regions. What does vary a bit is the mix. We're more heavy on off-highway industrial in North America and more heavy on on-highway in Europe and a nice mix in China.

Speaker 6

Understood. Great. Thanks for all the color, and good luck.

Operator

Our next question comes from Nathan Jones with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Morning, everyone. This is Andres Retamala on for Nathan Jones. Can you discuss some of the customers involved in the genset awards? Are they mainly new customers or more wins with existing customers? Just to get a better idea of an update there with the genset turbo wins.

Speaker 2

That specific win that we've announced is coming from a customer that has been a customer for a long time, a great customer for a long time, and with which we are developing our portfolio. We have today, we have not announced yet, but we are indeed working with new customers that are focused on that size of engines. The one we've announced is with a long-lasting and growth customer of Garrett.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Appreciate it. Just as a follow-up, regionally, I know you noted wins are more broad-based regionally. Is there any specific areas or regionally that you're seeing the most demand for the genset products? Just to get a better idea there.

Speaker 2

In all fairness, it's coming from all over the world. We are seeing demand, the need for energy. I think people are making a very quick shortcut between data center and gensets. The need for more energy to support the grid is going beyond the genset needs. If you think about renewable, if you think about all the weaknesses that you have on the grid in many regions, Therefore, we see that demand coming from everywhere. Indeed, the demand that comes to us comes from people that are making engines. You have basically three regions that are making engines for the rest of the world today. It's North America, it's Europe, and it's Asia. Even in Asia, we are starting to see big engine players putting factories in some regions where they were not present before. It really starts to be a global demand, quite frankly.

Speaker 7

Awesome. That's the last question from me. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Operator

Our next question comes from Hamed Khorsand with BWS Financial. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hi. Just on the commentary you've made about some of the areas in light vehicle being weak, are you being forced to lower prices at all? How are you competing to maintain volume?

Speaker 2

There is a good thing in our industry that even if we were to make a discount on the turbo, we would not sell more. Because if a car is made to have one turbo, I cannot put one at the front on the engine and one at the back in the trunk. It all depends on the capacity of our customers to sell those cars, and I don't see such practice as reducing the price in exchange of more volume short-term. That's usually not the way it works.

Speaker 8

Okay. Just given your outlook that you are seeing What would it take for your margins to improve further? Would it just be a stable production outlook, or is there anything else that could skew it for you?

Speaker 2

You're not happy with the progress already? It's a strong progress we made versus the other quarters, versus our guidance, versus everything. Indeed, I mean, no, I'm joking. There is something that we are working on. You start to know us, and you've been knowing us for quite some time, and we like the way you've been following us. This company is all about performance, and I think we said that, and we keep on saying that again and again. We are really working on everything, working on our internal cost, our fixed cost, our material cost. Not only the cost, but all the other things also that you have on the P&L. That's a relentless focus, and we never change that.

Speaker 2

Indeed, we have a variable cost structure, which means that when volumes are coming up, they come up a little bit stronger than we think. The conversion is quite good. This is what we're experiencing right now. In all fairness, if we could have a stable macroeconomic environment with a demand that would be having a shape that everybody knows for the next not only quarters, but next two, three years for the automotive industry, which I realize is a dream because it has never been working that way, we would be able, probably, to push the bar even higher right away.

Speaker 8

Great. All right. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Today, we need to recognize that we are not exactly into that situation. That's why I'm extremely happy with the performance of the company with the current situation we are in.

Speaker 8

All right. Thank you, Olivier.

Operator

At this time, there are no further questions. The Q&A session has now concluded. Thank you for joining Garrett's Q2 earnings call. This concludes today's session.

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