Allison Transmission Holdings (ALSN) Risk Factors

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and certain provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law contain provisions that could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or changes in our management that the stockholders of our company may deem advantageous. These provisions: - authorize the issuance of blank check preferred stock that our Board of Directors could issue to increase the number of outstanding shares and to discourage a takeover attempt;- prohibit our stockholders from calling a special meeting of stockholders;- prohibit stockholder action by written consent, which requires all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of our stockholders;- provide that the Board of Directors is expressly authorized to adopt, or to alter or repeal, our bylaws;- establish advance notice requirements for nominations for election to our Board of Directors or for proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at stockholder meetings; and - require the approval of holders of at least two-thirds of the outstanding shares of common stock to amend the bylaws and certain provisions of the certificate of incorporation. These anti-takeover defenses could discourage, delay or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of our company that our stockholders may believe to be in their best interests. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for our stockholders to elect directors of their choosing and cause us to take corporate actions other than those they desire.

Pursuant to GAAP, we are required to assess our goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets to determine if they are impaired on an annual basis, or more often if events or changes in circumstances indicate that impairment may have occurred. Intangible assets with finite lives are amortized over the useful life and are reviewed for impairment on triggering events such as events or changes in circumstances indicating that an impairment may have occurred. If the testing performed indicates that impairment has occurred, we are required to record a non-cash impairment charge for the difference between the carrying value of the goodwill and the implied fair value of the goodwill or the carrying value of the intangible assets and the fair value of the intangible assets in the period the determination is made. Disruptions to our business, end market conditions, protracted economic weakness, the unsuccessful development of a product and unexpected significant declines in operating results may result in charges for goodwill and other asset impairments. See "Note 2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" and "Note 6. Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets" of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8., of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional details. The carrying value of long-lived assets is evaluated whenever events or circumstances indicate that the carrying value of a long-lived asset may not be recoverable. Events or circumstances that would result in an impairment review primarily include a significant change in the use of an asset, a significant change in the projected future cash flows generated by an asset or the planned sale or disposal of an asset. The asset would be considered impaired when there is no future use planned for the asset or the future net undiscounted cash flows generated by the asset or asset group are less than its carrying value. An impairment loss would be recognized based on the amount by which the carrying value exceeds fair value and could have a material adverse effect on the results of our operations. See "Note 2. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" and "Note 5. Property, Plant and Equipment" of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8., of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional details.

From time to time, we evaluate selective acquisitions, partnerships and strategic investments. Potential and completed acquisitions and partnerships involve many risks that could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations, including: - our ability to identify suitable acquisition or partnership candidates, prevail against competing potential acquirers or partners and negotiate and consummate acquisitions or partnerships on terms attractive to us;- difficulties in integrating personnel and sales forces, operations, manufacturing, logistics, research and development, information technology, communications, purchasing, accounting, marketing, administration and other systems and processes and otherwise assimilating the operations of the acquired company;- the diversion of resources, including diverting management's attention from our current operations;- risks of entering new geographic or product markets in which we have limited or no direct prior experience;- the potential loss of key customers, employees or suppliers of the acquired company or adverse effects on our existing business relationships with our suppliers and customers;- the potential incurrence of indebtedness to fund the acquisition or partnerships;- the acquired business or partnership not achieving anticipated revenues, earnings, cash flow or market share;- excess capacity;- failure to achieve the expected synergies or cost savings;- the need for additional investments post-investment or post-acquisition that could be greater than anticipated;- the impact of U.S. and foreign competition laws and regulations on our ability to make certain acquisitions, to enter into certain partnerships or to make certain strategic investments;- inaccurate assessment of undisclosed, contingent or other liabilities or problems and unanticipated costs associated with the acquisition or partnership;- incorrect estimates made in accounting for acquisitions, incurrence of non-recurring charges and write-off of significant amounts of goodwill that could adversely affect our financial results; and - dilution of earnings. We may also face liability with respect to acquired businesses for violations of environmental or other laws occurring prior to the date of our acquisition, and some or all of these liabilities may not be covered by environmental or other insurance secured to mitigate the risk or by indemnification from the sellers from which we acquired these businesses. We could also incur significant costs, including, but not limited to, remediation costs, natural resources damages, civil or criminal fines and sanctions and third-party claims, as a result of past or future violations of, or liabilities associated with, environmental or other laws. We cannot offer any assurance that we will be able to consummate any future acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships or other business combinations. If we are unable to identify suitable acquisition candidates or to consummate and successfully integrate any future acquisitions, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected as a result.

Our business is subject to certain risks associated with doing business internationally, particularly in emerging markets. Outside-North America net sales represented approximately 25% of our net sales for 2023. Most of our operations are in the U.S., but we also have manufacturing and customization facilities in India and Hungary with a services agreement with Stellantis NV and customization capability in Brazil, the Netherlands, China and Japan. Further, we intend to continue to pursue growth opportunities for our business in a variety of business environments outside the U.S., which could exacerbate the risks set forth below. Our international operations are subject to, without limitation, the following risks: - the burden of complying with multiple and possibly conflicting laws and any unexpected changes in regulatory requirements;- foreign currency exchange controls, sanctions, import and export restrictions and tariffs, including restrictions promulgated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and other trade protection regulations and measures;- political risks, including increased trade protectionism and risks of loss due to civil disturbances, acts of terrorism, acts of war, guerilla activities and insurrection;- unstable economic, financial and market conditions and increased expenses as a result of inflation, higher energy costs or higher interest rates;- difficulties in enforcement of third-party contractual obligations and intellectual property rights and collecting receivables through foreign legal systems;- difficulty in staffing and managing international operations and the application of foreign labor regulations;- differing local product preferences and product requirements;- fluctuations in currency exchange rates to the extent that our assets or liabilities are denominated in a currency other than the functional currency of the country where we operate;- potentially adverse tax consequences from changes in tax laws, requirements relating to withholding taxes on remittances and other payments by subsidiaries and restrictions on our ability to repatriate dividends from our subsidiaries; and - exposure to liabilities under anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") and similar laws and regulations in other jurisdictions. Any one of these factors could materially adversely affect our sales of products or services to international customers or harm our reputation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

While we manufacture our products in several facilities and maintain insurance covering our facilities, including business interruption insurance, a catastrophic loss of the use of all or a portion of one of our manufacturing facilities due to accident, labor issues, weather conditions, acts of war, political unrest, terrorist activity, natural disaster or extreme weather events, which may increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change, public health crises, such as pandemics and epidemics or otherwise, whether short- or long-term, would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Our most significant concentration of manufacturing is around our corporate headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana, where we produce approximately 90% of our transmissions. In addition to our Indianapolis manufacturing facilities, we currently operate manufacturing facilities for our fully electric propulsion solutions in Auburn Hills, Michigan, for our transmissions in both Szentgotthard, Hungary and Chennai, India and for our aluminum die cast components in Lewisburg, Tennessee. In the event of a disruption at the Indianapolis facilities, our other facilities may not be adequately equipped to operate at a level sufficient to compensate for the volume of production at the Indianapolis facility due to their size and the fact that they have not yet been tested for such significant increases in production volume.

Our success depends on our ability to develop or introduce new products and technologies and improve the efficiency and performance of our current products, and we invest significant resources in research and development in order to do so. We currently have enhancements to our existing products and technologies and new products and technologies under development, including electric hybrid and fully electric propulsion solutions, for planned introduction into certain end markets. The development of new products and technologies is difficult, time-consuming and costly and the timetable for commercial release is uncertain. Not all of our new product launches have been successful, and we may not be successful in the future in introducing other new products and responding to customer needs. In addition, it often takes significant time, in some cases multiple fleet buy cycles, before customers gain experience with new products and technologies and those new products and technologies become widely-accepted by the market, if at all. Given the early stages of development of some of these new products and technologies, there can be no guarantee of future market acceptance and investment returns with respect to these products. In addition, the increased adoption of electric propulsion solutions could result in lower demand for our fully automatic transmissions and, over time, the demand for related service parts and support equipment, which would impact our margins. If we do not adequately anticipate the changing needs of our customers by keeping pace with improvements and changes in vehicle propulsion technology and developing and introducing new and effective products and technologies on a timely basis, or if the products and technologies we develop do not become market-leading, our competitive position and prospects could be harmed. If our competitors are able to respond to changing market demands and adopt new technologies more quickly than we do, demand for our products could decline, our competitive position could be harmed, our future research and development activities may be constrained due to intellectual property rights of others, licenses for technologies that would enable us to keep pace with our competitors may not be available on commercially reasonable terms if at all and we may not be able to recoup a return on our development investments. Moreover, changing customer demands as well as evolving regulatory, safety and environmental standards could require us to adapt our products and technologies to address such changes. As a result, in the future we may experience delays in the introduction of some or all of our new products or modifications or enhancements of existing products. Furthermore, there may be production delays due to unanticipated technological setbacks, which may, in turn, delay the release of new products to our end users. If the rate of adoption of new technologies, including electric vehicles for the medium- and heavy-duty commercial market, occurs at a pace that is faster than we are anticipating, we may not have products available to meet that accelerated timeframe. If we experience significant delays or increased costs in the production, launch or acceptance of our products and technologies, our net sales and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

Protecting our intellectual property rights is critical to our ability to compete and succeed as a company. General Motors Company ("GM") has granted us an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide license under a large number of U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications, as well as certain unpatented technology and know-how, to design, develop, manufacture, use and sell fully automatic transmissions and electric hybrid propulsion solutions for use in certain vocational vehicles, defense vehicles and off-road products. For the bulk of the intellectual property licensed to us, our license is exclusive with respect to the design, development, manufacture, use and sale of fully automatic transmissions and electric hybrid propulsion solutions in vocational vehicles above certain weight rating thresholds, certain defense vehicles and certain off-road products. It is non-exclusive with respect to certain other products that are within the scope of the licensed patents or to which the licensed technology can be applied. GM continues to own such patents and technology, and GM has the right, in the first instance, to control the maintenance, enforcement and defense of such patents and the prosecution of the licensed patent applications. In addition, our ability to sublicense our rights is limited.

We are at risk for interruptions, outages, and compromises to the confidentiality, integrity or availability of: (i) operational systems, including information technology, business, financial, accounting, product development, data processing, or manufacturing processes, owned by us or our third-party vendors or suppliers; (ii) facility security systems, owned by us or our third-party vendors, customers or suppliers; and/or (iii) vehicle propulsion control modules or other in-product technology, owned by us, our customers or our third-party vendors or suppliers. Such cyber incidents could materially disrupt operational systems (for example, through the deployment of ransomware); result in loss of intellectual property, trade secrets or other proprietary or competitively sensitive information; compromise personally identifiable information of employees, customers, suppliers, or others; jeopardize the security of our facilities; and/or affect the performance of vehicle propulsion control modules or other in-product technology. A cyber incident could be caused by malicious insiders or by third parties using sophisticated, targeted methods to circumvent firewalls, encryption, and other security defenses, including hacking, fraud, trickery, or other forms of deception, such as social engineering and phishing, or due to human or technological error, such as misconfigurations, "bugs," or vulnerabilities in software or hardware used by us or others. The techniques used by threat actors change frequently and may be difficult to detect for long periods of time. Cyberattacks are expected to accelerate on a global basis in frequency and magnitude as threat actors are increasingly using tools – including artificial intelligence – to evade detection and even remove forensic evidence. As a result, we may be unable to detect, investigate, remediate or recover from future cyberattacks or other incidents, or to avoid a materially adverse impact to our systems, information or business. In addition, remote or hybrid working arrangements at our Company, our customers and many third-party providers increase cybersecurity risks due to the challenges associated with managing remote computing assets and the nature of security vulnerabilities that are present in many non-corporate and home networks. We and certain of our customers and third-party providers have experienced cyberattacks and other incidents in the past and will continue to experience varying degrees of cyberattacks and incidents in the future. While to date no cybersecurity incidents have had a material impact on our operations or financial results, we cannot guarantee that material incidents will not occur in the future. In addition, as a provider of defense products and services to the U.S. government and foreign governments, we are subject to a heightened risk of cyberattacks, including by foreign governments, violent extremist organizations, and transnational criminal organizations. A significant cyber incident could impact our production capability, harm our reputation and business relationships, impact our competitive position (including compromising our intellectual property assets), and subject us to regulatory actions or litigation and fines and/or penalties, including pursuant to evolving global privacy and security regulations and laws, as well as significant investigative, restoration or remediation costs and/or increased compliance costs. Any of the foregoing could materially affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. There is no guarantee that our measures to prevent, detect and mitigate these threats, including employee and key third-party partner education, monitoring of networks and systems, and maintenance of backup and protective systems, will be successful in preventing or mitigating a cyber incident. In addition, in many jurisdictions, we are subject to privacy and data protection laws and regulations. These laws and regulations are changing rapidly and becoming increasingly complex. The interpretation and application of data protection laws in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere are uncertain, evolving and may be inconsistent across jurisdictions. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could result in legal liability, significant regulator penalties and fines, or impair our reputation in the marketplace.

We currently do, and may continue in the future to, rely on unpatented proprietary technology. In such regard, we cannot be assured that any of our applications for protection of our intellectual property rights will be approved or that others will not infringe or challenge our intellectual property rights. It is possible our competitors will independently develop the same or similar technology or otherwise obtain access to our unpatented technology. Although we believe the loss or expiration of any single patent would not have a material effect on our business, results of operations or financial position, there can be no assurance that any one, or more, of the patents or any other intellectual property owned by or licensed to us will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by third parties. In fact, a number of the patents licensed to us are set to expire in the next few years. When a patent expires, the inventions it discloses can be used freely by others. Thus, the competitive advantage that we gain from the patents licensed to us will decrease over time, and a greater burden will be placed on our own research and development and licensing efforts to develop and otherwise acquire technologies to keep pace with improvements of transmission-related technology in the marketplace. We enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with employees, and into non-disclosure agreements with suppliers and appropriate customers so as to limit access to and disclosure of our proprietary information. We cannot be assured that these measures will provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information in the event of any unauthorized use, misappropriation or disclosure. If we are unable to maintain the proprietary nature of our technologies, our ability to sustain margins on some or all of our products may be affected, which could reduce our sales and profitability. Moreover, the protection provided for our intellectual property by the laws and courts of foreign nations may not be as advantageous to us as the protection available under U.S. law.

Our products contain various raw materials, including corrosion-resistant steel, non-ferrous metals such as aluminum and nickel, and precious metals such as platinum and palladium. We use raw materials directly in manufacturing and in components that we purchase from our suppliers. We generally purchase components with significant raw material content on the open market. The prices for and availability of these raw materials fluctuate depending on market conditions. Volatility in the prices of raw materials such as steel, aluminum and nickel could increase the cost of manufacturing our products. Additionally, our suppliers are also subject to fluctuations in the prices of raw materials and may attempt to pass all or a portion of such increases on to us. In the event they are successful in doing so, our margins would decline. We may not be able to pass on these costs to our customers,and this could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Even in the event that increased costs can be passed through to customers, our gross margin percentages would decline as the recovery of these costs from customers generally lags six to twelve months. In 2023, approximately 75% of our total spending on components was sourced from approximately 40 suppliers, many of which are the single source for such components. All of the suppliers from which we purchase materials and components used in our business are fully validated suppliers, meaning the suppliers' manufacturing processes and inputs have been validated under a production part approval process ("PPAP"). Furthermore, there are only a limited number of suppliers for certain of the materials used in our business, such as corrosion-resistant steel. As a result, our business is subject to the risk of additional price fluctuations and periodic delays in the delivery of our materials or components if supplies from a validated supplier are interrupted and a new supplier, if one is available, must be validated or materials and components must be purchased from a supplier without a completed PPAP, which could increase our risk of purchasing non-conforming components. Any such price fluctuations or delays, if significant, could harm our profitability or operations. In addition, the loss of a supplier could result in significant material cost increases or reduce our production capacity. We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, delays in the availability and receipt of raw materials and component parts as a result of global economic uncertainty and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, some of which have materially impacted, and may continue to materially impact, our ability to meet customer demand. We also cannot guarantee we will be able to maintain favorable arrangements and relationships with these suppliers. An increase in the cost or a sustained interruption in the supply or shortage of some of these raw materials or components that may be caused by a deterioration of our relationships with suppliers, adverse geopolitical events such as the crisis in the Red Sea, events such as natural disasters and extreme weather events which may increase in frequency and intensity as a result of climate change, power outages, labor strikes and public health crisis such as pandemics and epidemics or the like could negatively impact our business, results of operations and financial condition. Although we have agreements with many of our customers that we will pass such price increases through to them, such contracts may be canceled by our customers and/or we may not be able to recoup the costs of such price increases. Additionally, if we are unable to continue to purchase our required quantities of raw materials on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, if we are unable to maintain or enter into purchasing contracts for commodities, or if delivery of materials or component parts from suppliers is delayed or non-conforming, our operations could be disrupted, we may not be able to meet customer demand, and our profitability and our financial results may be materially impacted. While we may experience the supply chain constraints mentioned above across all our products lines, the impacts to our customers are likely to be more pronounced in our lower volume product lines, including those supplied to the Defense and Off-Highway end markets.

Our manufacturing operations are subject to many environmental, health and safety laws and regulations governing emissions to air, discharges to water, the generation, handling and disposal of waste and the cleanup of contaminated properties. Compliance with these laws and regulations is costly. We have incurred and expect to continue to incur significant costs to maintain or achieve compliance with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. Moreover, regulatory bodies are increasingly adopting regulations that target limiting greenhouse gases and combating climate change, which may impact our ability to sell our current products or require us to develop new products or technologies. If these environmental, health and safety laws and regulations that impact our operations or products become more stringent or expand to include a larger portion of our products or our customers' products in the future, we could incur additional costs in order to ensure that our business and products comply with such regulations. In addition, we may not be successful in developing products or technologies that comply with, or the vehicle or customer OEMs to which we sell our products may choose not to comply with, such laws and regulations, which could impact our ability to sell our products in certain locations, negatively impact our business and result in a loss of market share. Furthermore, if our products that are already placed in service are found to be non-compliant with certain laws, regulations and certifications, we may incur additional costs and fines. We cannot assure that we are in full compliance with all environmental, health and safety laws and regulations. Our failure to comply with applicable environmental, health and safety laws and regulations and permit requirements could result in civil or criminal fines, penalties or enforcement actions, third-party claims for property damage and personal injury, requirements to clean up property or to pay for the costs of cleanup or regulatory or judicial orders enjoining or curtailing operations or requiring corrective measures, including the installation of pollution control equipment or remedial actions. Our failure to comply could also result in our failure to secure adequate insurance for our business, resulting in significant exposure, diminished ability to hedge our risks and material modifications of our business operations. Concern over climate change continues to result in new legal and regulatory requirements designed to mitigate the effects of climate change on the environment, such as actions taken by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several states to address greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union's CSRD, California's Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act and Climate-Related Financial Risk Act, and proposed climate disclosure rules that remain under consideration by the SEC. We are experiencing increased compliance burdens and costs in addressing our obligations under these new legal and regulatory obligations, and these new legal and regulatory obligations may adversely affect raw material sourcing, manufacturing operations and the distribution of our products. We may be subject to liability as a potentially responsible party under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and similar state or foreign laws for contaminated properties that we currently own, lease or operate or that we or our predecessors have previously owned, leased or operated, and sites to which we or our predecessors sent hazardous substances. Such liability may be joint and several so that we may be liable for more than our share of any contamination, and any such liability may be determined without regard to causation or knowledge of contamination. We or our predecessors have been named potentially responsible parties at contaminated sites from time to time. There can be no assurances that future environmental remediation obligations will not have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, we occasionally evaluate alternatives with respect to our facilities, including possible dispositions or closings. Investigations undertaken in connection with these activities may lead to discoveries of contamination that must be remediated, and closings of facilities may trigger remediation requirements that are not applicable to operating facilities. We may also face lawsuits brought by third parties that either allege property damage or personal injury as a result of, or seek reimbursement for costs associated with, such contamination.