Aptiv PLC

Aptiv PLC is a leading global technology and mobility architecture company primarily serving the automotive sector. The company was formed under the laws of Jersey in 2011 and its ordinary shares are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "APTV." Aptiv delivers end-to-end mobility solutions, enabling customers' transition to more electrified, software-defined vehicles. The company's business strategy includes disciplined investing in its business, strategically focusing its portfolio in high-technology, high-growth spaces, and leveraging an industry-leading cost structure to expand operating margins. Aptiv has organized its business into two diversified segments: Signal and Power Solutions and Advanced Safety and User Experience. Signal and Power Solutions provides complete design, manufacture, and assembly of the vehicle's electrical architecture, including engineered component products, connectors, wiring assemblies, and high voltage power and safety-critical data distribution systems. Advanced Safety and User Experience provides critical technologies and services to enhance vehicle safety, security, comfort, and convenience, including sensing and perception systems, electronic control units, multi-domain controllers, vehicle connectivity systems, cloud-native software platforms, application software, autonomous driving technologies, and end-to-end DevOps tools. The company's website is aptiv.com, and its business is diversified across end-markets, regions, customers, vehicle platforms, and products. Its customer base includes the 25 largest automotive OEMs in the world, and in 2023, 28% of its net sales came from the Asia Pacific region. The company operates 138 major manufacturing facilities and 11 major technical centers, enabling it to efficiently and effectively serve its global customers from best cost countries. It has a presence in 50 countries and employs approximately 22,200 scientists, engineers, and technicians focused on developing market-relevant product solutions for its customers. The automotive technology and components industry provides critical technologies, components, systems, subsystems, and modules to OEMs for the manufacture of new vehicles and to the aftermarket for use as replacement parts for current production and older vehicles. The industry is increasingly progressing towards software-defined vehicles becoming critical elements of the overall automotive ecosystem. Aptiv aims to continue developing leading edge technology focused on addressing the Safe, Green, and Connected mega-trends, and apply that technology toward products with sustainable margins that enable its customers to produce distinctive market-leading products. The company has identified a core portfolio of products that draw on its technical strengths and align with these mega-trends. The company's competitors include Amphenol Corporation, Draexlmaier Group, Lear Corporation, Leoni AG, Molex Inc., Sumitomo Electric Industries, TE Connectivity, Ltd., Yazaki Corporation, Bosch Group, Continental AG, Denso Corporation, Harman International, Hyundai Mobis, LG Electronics, Magna International, Panasonic Corporation, Valeo, Visteon Corporation, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG in each of its operating segments. It sells its products and services to the major global OEMs in every region of the world, with its ten largest customers accounting for approximately 54% of its total net sales for the year ended December 31, 2023. The company typically supplies products to its OEM customers through purchase orders, which are subject to various terms and conditions, including the possibility of termination for convenience or non-performance, and the obligation to share in recall costs if the OEM recalls its vehicles for defects attributable to the company's products. Aptiv procures its raw materials from a variety of suppliers around the world and seeks to obtain materials in the region in which its products are manufactured to minimize transportation and other costs. The most significant raw materials it uses to manufacture its products include copper and resins. The company has experienced increased pricing pressures related to these commodities and overall inflation, and is continually seeking to manage these and other material-related cost pressures using a combination of strategies. The company's business is moderately seasonal, with primary North American customers historically reducing production during the month of July and halting operations for approximately one week in December, European customers generally reducing production during the months of July and August and for one week in December, and Chinese customers generally halting operations for one week during the months of February and October. The company employs approximately 154,000 people, with a workforce distributed across North America (53%), Europe, Middle East and Africa (31%), Asia Pacific (12%), and South America (4%). Certain of its employees are represented by numerous unions and works councils.