paragon designs and supplies automotive electronics and solutions, selling directly to OEMs, including sensors, interiors, digital assistance and body kinematics. Production facilities are in Germany, the US and China. Following the IPO in October 2017, paragon owns 60% of Voltabox.
Investment summary
paragon faces a challenging year, primarily due to growing pains at the Electromobility segment (Voltabox). The Automotive segments’ FY19 sales are guided to be c €130m, near the top of the previous range. Group sales growth continues, albeit slower than expected, with margins reduced by an under-recovery of overheads and rationalisation and integration costs. FY19 guidance was greatly reduced in August. The order backlog of €2.1bn supports stronger growth in FY20, alongside improved profitability due to operational leverage and restructuring benefits in Mechanics. The current rating reflects concerns over the growth strategy following recent events. Restoring investor confidence should be a key management focus.
We believe paragon’s identification of, and investment in, solutions to address megatrends in global automotive and electromobility markets is understood by the capital markets. It is growing substantially faster than its markets due to innovative products that are driving changes in customer perceptions, creating new growth engines for the group.
