Garrett Motion CEO: Electrification Is a Big Trend For Our Company
*By Michael Teich*
Honeywell is cutting ties with its transportation systems business, but the spin-off's CEO considers it a mutual breakup.
“We’re not about to reinvent our strategy,” Garrett Motion's president and CEO Olivier Rabiller said Monday in an interview on Cheddar. "The only thing it provides us is to work at our own speed.”
Honeywell ($HON) opted to simplify its business, announcing in October of last year it was divesting Garrett Motion ($GTX) along with its home-products business. Rabiller said that allowed his company ー which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday ー to continue its "winning" strategy but at a faster pace.
Shares of Garrett Motion ended down slightly in its first day of trading Monday, while Honeywell's stock reached a new record high.
Garrett, which produces turbochargers and electric boosting technologies, may have had a slow start, but all is not lost. Companies like PayPal ($PYPL), which spun out of eBay ($EBAY) in 2015, have proven that splitting from a parent company can be a catalyst for growth. Shares of PayPal are up 127 percent since that separation.
For Garrett Motion future growth will come from China, Rabiller said. The company is banking on that country's booming electric vehicle market.
While overall car sales only grew 3 percent between 2016 and 2017 ー the slowest pace since 2011 ー EVs proved to be a bright spot. China logged sales of 578,000 vehicles in that market last year, up 72 percent from 2016. That accounts for less than 3 percent of total auto sales in the country, but the government's focus on electric vehicles presents a great opportunity, according to Rabiller.
“It’s not only about electrification in China. It about having tougher emission standards,” he said. “This is a trend we see pretty much all around the world.”
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/honeywell-spins-off-garrett-motion).
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.