Gentherm (THRM) Risk Factors

The price of our common stock, no par value ("Common Stock") on the Nasdaq Global Select Market has experienced substantial price volatility and may continue to do so in the future. Additionally, the Company, the automotive industry and the stock market as a whole have experienced significant stock price and volume fluctuations that have affected stock prices in ways that may have been unrelated to these companies' operating performance. In particular, while stock price multiples had increased in recent years for OEMs and automotive component suppliers to reflect the growth opportunity of the rapid shift to EV production, stock price multiples have declined more recently during this period of uncertainty regarding EV adoption. Price volatility over a given period may cause the average price at which the Company repurchases its stock to exceed the stock's price at a given point in time. If the Company fails to meet expectations related to future growth, profitability, share repurchases or other market expectations, its stock price may decline significantly, which could have a material adverse impact on investor confidence and employee retention. On December 11, 2020, the Board of Directors authorized a stock repurchase program, pursuant to which the Company is authorized to repurchase up to $150 million of Common Stock over a three-year period. Repurchases may be made, from time to time, in amounts and at prices the Company deems appropriate, subject to market conditions, applicable legal requirements, debt covenants and other considerations. Any Company stock repurchases under the program may result in stock price and volume fluctuations. During the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company repurchased shares under the 2020 Stock Repurchase Program for $92.5 million and had a remaining repurchase authorization of $37.5 million as of December 31, 2023. On November 1, 2023, the Board of Directors extended the maturity date of the program from December 15, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

As of December 31, 2023, we had approximately $64 million in net deferred tax assets, inclusive of a $36 million valuation allowance. These deferred tax assets include net operating loss carryovers and tax credits that can be used to offset taxable income in future periods and reduce income taxes payable in those future periods. Each quarter, we determine the probability of the realization of deferred tax assets, using significant judgments and estimates with respect to, among other things, historical operating results and expectations of future earnings and tax planning strategies. If we determine in the future that there is not sufficient positive evidence to support the valuation of these assets, due to the risk factors described herein or other factors, we may be required to further adjust the valuation allowance to reduce our deferred tax assets. Such a reduction could result in material non-cash expenses in the period in which the valuation allowance is adjusted and could have a material adverse effect on our financial statements.

Our design, manufacture and marketing of automotive products may subject us to warranty claims and product liability in the event that our products (or the products of our customers that incorporate our products) fail to perform as expected and, in the case of product liability, such failure of our products (or the products of our customers that incorporate our products) results or is alleged to result in bodily injury or property damage. This risk may be enhanced for any new developed products or recently acquired products, which has been a significant part of our growth in recent years. If any of our products are or are alleged to be defective, we also may be required by our customers or regulators to participate in a recall or other corrective action involving such products, which we have been subject to periodically. Automotive manufacturers are increasingly looking to their suppliers for contribution when faced with recalls and product liability claims, as well as requiring their suppliers to guarantee or warrant their products and bear the costs of repair and replacement of such products under new vehicle warranties. OEMs historically have recalled vehicles for perceived defects in seat heaters, and we have incurred liabilities in connection with the recalls and other field actions. In addition, governmental regulatory agencies throughout the world, such as NHTSA in the U.S., have safety standards that require manufacturers to remedy defects related to vehicle safety through safety recall campaigns, and a manufacturer is obligated to recall vehicles if it determines that the vehicles do not comply with a safety standard. Any large liability claims, if made, could exceed our insurance coverage limits and insurance may not continue to be available on commercially acceptable terms, if at all, and we may incur significant costs to defend these claims. In addition, we may not be successful in recovering amounts from third parties, including suppliers, in connection with these claims. In certain instances, allegedly defective products may be the result of components supplied by our supply chain, and we may be limited in our ability to obtain recovery from our suppliers of materials or services included within our products that are associated with product liability and warranty claims, particularly if the affected items relate to global platforms or involve defects that are identified years after production. A recall, product liability or warranty claim brought against us that is not insured or is in excess of our available insurance, and if other third parties do not contribute or indemnify us, could have an adverse impact on our results of operations and reputation or market acceptance of our products. The design, manufacture and marketing of medical products involve certain inherent risks. Manufacturing or design defects, component failures, unapproved or improper use of our products, or inadequate disclosure of risks or other information relating to the use of our products can lead to regulatory action, injury or other serious adverse events. These events could lead to recalls or safety alerts relating to our products (either voluntary or as required by the FDA or similar governmental authorities in other countries), and could result, in certain cases, in the removal of a product from the market. A recall, inadequate disclosure or defect could result in significant costs and lost sales and customers, enforcement actions and/or investigations by state and federal governments or other enforcement bodies, as well as negative publicity and damage to our reputation that could reduce future demand for our products. Personal injuries relating to the use of our products can also result in significant product liability claims being brought against us. In some circumstances, such adverse events could also cause delays in regulatory approval of new products or the imposition of post-market approval requirements, such as further clinical testing. Such clinical testing is costly and time-consuming and could delay market approval or the meeting of additional post-market requirements.

Downward pricing pressure is customarily applied by automotive manufacturers to the automotive supply chain. Our customer contracts generally provide for annual price reductions over the production life of the vehicle, while requiring us to assume significant responsibility for the design, development and engineering of our products, as well as the costs incurred through our supply chain. Prices may also be adjusted on an ongoing basis to reflect changes in product content/costs and other commercial factors. Our inability to achieve product cost reductions that offset customer-imposed price reductions could adversely affect our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

A significant portion of our global transactions is conducted in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar, including the Euro, the Chinese Renminbi, the Vietnamese Dong, the Hungarian Forint, the North Macedonian Denar, the Ukrainian Hryvnia, the South Korean Won and the Mexican Peso. While we sometimes employ financial instruments to hedge some of our transactional foreign exchange exposure, developing an effective and economical foreign currency risk strategy is complex and expensive and no strategy can completely insulate us from those exposures. Exchange rates can be volatile and could adversely affect our financial results and comparability of results from period to period. Such exchange rate volatility could also increase the costs of raw materials or components from foreign suppliers, and as a result, our profitability could be adversely affected.

Gentherm continues to invest significantly in developing and launching new products and related technologies, including software, through internal research and development, and from acquisitions and investments in joint ventures. Further, winning new business awards will include specific customer requirements regarding, among other things, timing, performance and quality standards. The launch of new products and technologies is complex, the success of which depends on a wide range of factors, including the capacity of our internal teams, robustness of our product and manufacturing process development, success in sourcing new components and commodities with suitable suppliers, readiness of our and our suppliers' manufacturing facilities and manufacturing processes, as well as factors related to tooling, equipment, employees, initial product quality and other factors. New launches have become more frequent and even more complicated given the increased use of advanced electronics that must be integrated throughout a vehicle. Given the complexity of new product and technology launches, we may experience difficulties managing product quality, timeliness and associated costs. The process of designing and developing new technology, products and services is costly and uncertain and requires extensive capital investment. In addition, new program launches require a significant ramp up of costs up to a few years prior to sales of such products. However, our sales related to these new programs generally are dependent upon the timing and success of our customers' introduction of new vehicles. Our inability to effectively manage the timing, quality and costs of these new program launches could have a materially adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. To the extent we are not able to successfully launch new business, or if we are unable to prevent or effectively remedy errors, bugs, vulnerabilities or defects in our new products and technologies, vehicle production at our customers could be significantly delayed or shut down. Such operating failures could result in significant financial penalties to us or a diversion of personnel and financial resources to improving or fixing launches rather than investment in continuous process improvement or other growth initiatives, and could result in our customers shifting work away from us to a competitor. Any of the foregoing matters could result in a significant loss of revenue and market share and could have an adverse effect on our profitability and cash flows.

We own important intellectual property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets. Our intellectual property plays an important role in maintaining our competitive position in many of the markets that we serve. We cannot guarantee, however, that we will be able to secure all desired protection, nor that the steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property will be adequate, to prevent infringement of our rights or misappropriation or theft of our technology, trade secrets or know-how. For example, effective patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret protection may be unavailable or limited in some of the countries in which we operate. In addition, while we generally enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees and third parties to protect our trade secrets, know-how, business strategy and other proprietary information, such confidentiality agreements could be breached or otherwise may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets and know-how related to the design, manufacture or operation of our products. If it became necessary for us to resort to litigation to protect our intellectual property rights, any proceedings could be burdensome and costly, and we may not prevail. Further, adequate remedies may not be available in the event of an unauthorized use or disclosure of our trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. Finally, for those products in our portfolio that rely on patent protection, once a patent has expired, the product is generally open to competition. Products under patent protection usually generate higher revenues and profitability than those not protected by patents. If we fail to successfully enforce our intellectual property rights, our competitive position and the value of our brands and other intangible assets could suffer, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. In addition, our competitors may develop technologies that are similar or superior to our proprietary technologies or design around the patents we own or license. Further, as we expand our operations in jurisdictions where the protection of intellectual property rights is less robust, the risk of others duplicating our proprietary technologies increases, despite efforts we undertake to protect them. Foreign governments may adopt regulations, and foreign governments or courts may render decisions, requiring compulsory licensing of intellectual property rights, or foreign governments may require products to meet standards that serve to favor local companies or provide reduced protection relative to other countries.

We rely on our information technology, communication networks, enterprise applications, accounting and financial reporting platforms and related systems in connection with many of our business activities. Some of these networks and systems are managed by third-party service providers and are not under our direct control. Our operations routinely involve receiving, storing, processing and transmitting sensitive information pertaining to our business, customers, suppliers, employees and other sensitive matters. We rely upon the capacity, reliability and security of our IT and data security infrastructure, as well as our ability to expand and continually update this infrastructure in response to the changing needs of our business. If we experience a problem with the functioning of an important IT system or a security breach of our IT systems, due to failure to timely upgrade systems or during system upgrades and/or new system implementations, or resulting from failures of our third-party service providers, the resulting disruptions could have an adverse effect on our business. As with most companies, we have experienced cybersecurity incidents, attempts to breach our systems and other similar incidents, none of which were material in 2023. With more of our employees working part-time remotely and in periods of significant acquisition integration activity, there may be increased opportunities for unauthorized access and cybersecurity incidents. Any future cybersecurity incidents could, however: materially disrupt operational systems; result in loss of trade secrets or other proprietary or competitively sensitive information; compromise personally identifiable information regarding customers or employees; delay our ability to deliver products to customers; and jeopardize the security of our facilities. A cybersecurity incident could be caused by malicious outsiders (including state-sponsored espionage or cyberwarfare, which has become commonplace) or insiders using sophisticated methods to circumvent firewalls, encryption and other security defenses. Because techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until they are launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. Information technology security threats, including security breaches, computer malware, "ransomware" and other cybersecurity incidents, are increasing in frequency, diversity and sophistication, which may cause cybersecurity incidents to be more difficult to detect for periods of time. Many victims of ransomware are forced to pay significant ransoms to regain access to their critical business data, and we may not be permitted under various regulations and laws to make such payments. We continuously seek to maintain a robust program of information security and controls that we believe is designed to detect, reduce, and mitigate the risk of cybersecurity incidents; however, we may not be aware of all vulnerabilities or might not accurately assess the risks of incidents, and such preventative measures cannot provide absolute security and may not be sufficient in all circumstances or mitigate all potential risks, including potential production disruption or the loss or disclosure of sensitive information. The impact of a material cybersecurity incident could subject us to legal or regulatory sanctions and have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, reputation, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. We have implemented and maintain various information security processes designed to identify, assess and manage material risks from cybersecurity threats to our critical systems and our proprietary, strategic or competitive data, which we review for quality and effectiveness on a regular basis, but despite our implementation of security processes, our IT systems, like those of other companies, are vulnerable to intrusion or damages from computer viruses or worms, natural disasters (which may become more frequent due to climate change), unauthorized access, cybersecurity incidents, breaches due to errors, negligence or malfeasance by employees, contractors or others who have access to these systems and other similar disruptions. Any system failure, accident or security breach could result in disruptions to our operations and include the theft of our intellectual property, trade secrets, customer information, human resources information or other confidential information. The foregoing matters could cause significant damage to our reputation, affect our relationships with its customers, lead to claims against us, fines and other penalties assessed upon us by governmental authorities, and ultimately harm our business and financial performance. In addition, we may be required to incur significant costs to remediate and protect against damage caused by these disruptions or security breaches in the future.