Delphi Automotive is automotive parts manufacturer headquartered in the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1994 under the name Automotive Components Group and was renamed Delphi Automotive in Systems in 1995 and in 1999 the company became a fully independent, publicly held corporation. The company has since gone on to become one of the world’s largest and most successful automotive parts manufacturers and the company employs over 100,000 people. While Delphi Automotive is a lucrative and successful company, there are still several things about the company that are not common knowledge to many people. Here is a list of five things you didn’t know about Delphi Automotive.
5. New CEO
Starting in 2015, Delphi Automotive’s current CFO Kevin Clark will become the company’s CEO after Rodney O’Neal retires from the position. O’Neal became Delphi’s CEO in 1997 and the company has just recently announced his plans to enter retirement.
4. Bankruptcy
In 2005 Delphi Automotive filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This decision was the biggest bankruptcy filing in United States automotive history and heavily impacted the entire industry and during this time the company’s stock dropped considerably . Delphi Automotives bankrupt status also caused some issues for their former parent company, General Motors. However, Delphi Automotive has since returned to financial stability and is ranked as one of the largest auto parts manufacturers.
3. Record Breaking Numbers
According to American Banking News, Delphi Automotive reached a new one year high during trading this month. The company traded for prices as high as $71.96 with 1,007,454 shares changing hands. Analysts have rated the stock a “buy” with TheStreet rating team defending their decision by stating: “This is driven by some important positives, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, revenue growth, good cash flow from operations and increase in net income. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins.”
2. Faulty Ignition Switch
Delphi Automotive has recently received some negative press after a faulty ignition switches that were manufactured by the was recalled after being linked to a number of deaths and injuries. According to sources, ” it was not revealed until 2013 that an engineering change was made to the GM small-car ignition switch some six years into production to beef up the torque it takes to turn cars on and off without a corresponding change to the part number. Had a new part number been issued, investigators would have likely connected ignition-switch failures to airbag non-deployments and potentially saved lives.” However, current CEO Rodney O’Neal believes that Delphi Automotive is not responsible for the parts’ failure.
1. Technology to Improve Vehicle Safety
Delphi Automotive is currently working on hardware that will hopefully help cut down on the number of vehicle-to-vehicle accidents. The company has announced that they have made an agreement to supply hardware for vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems to a large automaker; however, they did not reveal the company’s name. This technology will help make drivers aware of vehicles that are hidden by blind spots.
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