Antolin - comment

The company is playing for time. Following the publication of a Spanish press article in the summer, conversation surrounding Antolin seems to circle around its potential sale of the Interior Lighting division.  We estimate that a sale of the €60m EBITDA division could net Antolin €250m at most - a significant sum, but not accretive. With the introduction of LEDs, car interior lighting is evolving, not just for EVs, but particularly where ICE cars try to look modern. So it’s an area of much R&D and CapEx, the latter weighing on any sales multiple. The valid reason for selling this division is, of course, to literally ‘buy’ time - through June 2029 if together with the current excess cash it's applied to the RCF and the ‘28s. The position of the SSNs would not improve by more than the option value of management’s success in raising that low EBITDA margin.