Marelli on a mission to transform the future of mobility

Dinesh Paliwal, Executive Chairman of Marelli, in an exclusive interview with Hormazd Sorabjee, outlines details of the company's ambitious plans for growth along with a renewed focus on the company's core technologies.

- Hormazd Sorabjee

What is the current position with regard to restructuring, debt and other financial challenges. What is the way forward?

Marelli went through a very challenging time. But I'm here to report that we very successfully completed the financial restructuring in August. That means additional investment from KKR and a reduction in our bank debt. It is very important. You can install the world's best CEO to run a company, but if you do not give them a strong balance sheet, you literally undermine their capability. So that was my commitment to the new CEO, David Slump, who I brought in on January 1. David is laser-focused on making Marelli competitive and innovative.

Marelli is now in a strong financial position to take on innovation and invest. In addition, KKR reinvesting, again and again, is testament to our exciting potential.

In parallel, I can also tell you that I've learned that if you're not a cost leader in the auto industry, you can never be an innovation and profit leader. So we have already pushed last year, a permanent cost reduction program that will deliver annual recurring cost savings of $500 million and almost two-thirds of that is done. And finally executing we have a massive $60 billion order backlog to execute, which shows the trust global automakers have placed in us.

With fresh investment infused in Marelli what are going to be your focus areas. Will it be lighting and sensing which is the largest part of your businesses?