Autoliv, Inc. reported consolidated earnings results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2014. For the quarter, net sales were $2,353.7 million, compared to $2,351.9 million for the last year. Operating income was $216.7 million, compared to $202.7 million for the last year or 9.2% of sales, mainly due to the higher gross margin combined with a decrease in capacity alignment costs. Adjusted operating income was $237.2 million, compared to $236.3 million for the last year. Income before taxes was $203.3 million, compared to $194.6 million for the last year. Net income was $148.0 million, compared to $100.5 million for the last year. Earnings per share, were $1.65, compared to $1.04 for the last year. Net cash provided by operating activities was $229.3 million, compared to $299.2 million for the last year. Capital expenditures were $127.9 million, compared to $111.9 million for the last year. Return on total equity was 16.6%, compared to 10.0% for the last year. Adjusted net income was $162.8 million, compared to $163.4 million for the last year. Adjusted earnings per share, diluted were $1.81, compared to $1.70 for the last year. Adjusted income before taxes was $223.8 million, compared to $228.2 million for the last year. Income before taxes increased by $9 million from higher operating income partly offset by higher interest expense. Earnings per share (EPS) assuming dilution was $1.65 compared to $1.04 for the same period one year ago. EPS assuming dilution was positively affected by the lower number of shares outstanding by 10 cents, lower capacity alignment and legal costs by 9 cents and higher operating profit by 6 cents. Sales were driven by strong organic sales growth in Active Safety, premium brands in Europe and Japanese OEMs in North America and also include an unfavorable currency translation effect of more than $100 million.

For the year, net sales were $9,240.5 million, compared to $8,803.4 million for the last year. Operating income was $722.6 million, compared to $761.4 million for the last year. Adjusted operating income was $842.4 million, compared to $808.4 million for the last year. Income before income taxes was $667.0 million, compared to $734.0 million for the last year. Net income was $469.0 million, compared to $489.9 million for the last year. Earnings per share, diluted were $5.06, compared to $5.07 million for the last year. Net cash provided by operating activities was $712.7 million, compared to $837.9 million for the last year. Capital expenditures were $453.4 million, compared to $379.3 million for the last year. Net debt as at December 31, 2014 was $61.8 million. Return on total equity was 12.3%, compared to 12.5% for the last year. Adjusted net income was $469.0 million, compared to $562.0 million for the last year. Adjusted earnings per share, diluted were $5.93, compared to $5.82 million for the last year. Adjusted income before taxes was $786.8 million, compared to $781.0 million for the last year. Income before taxes decreased by $67 million mainly due to higher interest expense from the financing completed in April 2014. assuming dilution was negatively affected by capacity alignments and legal costs by 53 cents, higher interest expense by 23 cents and higher underlying tax rate by 16 cents.

For the first quarter of 2015, mainly based on customer call-offs it expects organic sales to grow by around 3% compared to the same quarter of 2014. Currency translations are expected to have a more than 7% negative effect, resulting in a consolidated sales decline of close to 5%. The adjusted operating margin, excluding costs for capacity alignments and antitrust matters, is expected to be around 8%.

For the year, the company reported expectation for organic sales growth of more than 6%. Consolidated sales are expected to grow by less than 1% as effects from currency translations are expected to be negative by almost 6%. The expectation for the adjusted operating margin is around 9.5%, excluding costs for capacity alignments and antitrust matters. The projected effective tax rate for the full year 2015 is currently expected to be around 31%, excluding any discrete items. Operational cash flow is expected to remain strong and to be around $0.8 billion excluding any discrete items. Capital expenditures in support of growth strategy are expected to be 5%-6% of sales. Excluding capital expenditures for the inflator replacement business capital expenditures would have been expected to be 4%-5% of sales.