(Bloomberg) -- A supplier to Stellantis NV plans to hire advisers to help with more than €400 million ($441 million) of debt as softening demand, inflation and sluggish electric vehicle sales impact the sector.
Italy-based CLN Coils Lamiere Nastri needs to refinance a bond due in November and start negotiations with bank lenders, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named because they aren’t authorized to talk about it. The company is running a beauty contest to select an adviser in the next weeks, they said.
The bond was sold to Assicurazioni Generali SpA, the people added. Representatives for CLN and Generali declined to comment.
CLN’s troubles show how the struggles of carmakers are trickling down to the supply chain.
Nearly a third of major passenger-car plants from Europe’s five largest manufacturers were underutilized last year, producing fewer than half the vehicles they have the capacity to make, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of Just Auto data. Volkswagen AG is considering shutting down factories in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history.
“Slowing global automotive output, rising inventory and a pullback of carmakers’ battery electric vehicle plans have led to consensus downgrades” for autoparts makers this year and next as “overcapacity looms,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Gillian Davis and Michael Dean wrote in a report on autoparts makers.
Metal component manufacturer CLN was founded after the Second World War by Mario Magnetto and is still controlled by the founding family with a 75% stake, while the remainder is held by steelmaker ArcelorMittal SA.
Based near the Turin headquarters of Fiat — now one of the Stellantis brands — CLN expanded in Europe, Latin America, China and South Africa in recent years.
The company has produced, among others, roof racks for the Jeep Renegade, structures for Nissan Frontier and Renault Alaskan pick-ups and steel wheels for London’s black cab manufacturer LEVC, according to its website.
--With assistance from Giulia Morpurgo and Daniele Lepido.
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