CT Automotive Group – be ready for a buying opportunity with this week’s Interims, shares at 34p on 6 times earnings and 4.5 times prospective
Mark Watson-Mitchell - 15.09.2026
The Interim Results being announced tomorrow, Wednesday, 16th September, from the CT Automotive Group (LON.CTA) will not look too clever.
However, the reactive share price may well create an excellent opportunity to buy into a cheap stock.
In early August, the £25m-capitalised company, which is a designer and supplier of automotive interior components, warned investors that its first-half underlying pre-tax profit will be materially below the prior year despite revenue rising 15% to $62.1m, due to geopolitical instability having lifted its operating costs and disrupted supply chains.
The Company stated that higher freight costs, temporary inefficiencies at its expanding Mexico facility, and delayed cost recoveries weighed on its earnings, but it expects materially stronger profitability in the second-half alongside continued strong revenue growth.
CTA declared that it remains confident of meeting full-year market expectations as operational improvements and AI-driven factory systems boost efficiency.
In the last year the group’s shares have ranged from a 19p Low to a 55p High, they are now 33p, which taking a view upon the group’s prospects I consider to be a significant under-rating.
The Business
CT Automotive is engaged in the design, development and manufacture of bespoke automotive interior finishes (such as dashboard panels and fascia finishes) and kinematic assemblies (including air registers, armrests, deployable cup holders and storage systems), as well as their associated tooling, for the world's leading automotive original equipment manufacturers and global Tier One manufacturers.
The Group is headquartered in Portsmouth, with a low-cost manufacturing footprint while the key production facilities are located in Shenzhen and Ganzhou, China with additional manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Türkiye and distribution facilities as well as assembly lines in Europe, Asia and the US.
The Company has a low-cost design and administrative centre in India.
CT Automotive's operating model enables it to pursue a price leadership strategy, supplying high-quality parts to customers at a lower overall landed cost than competitors.
This has helped the Group build a high-quality portfolio of OEM customers, both directly and via Tier One suppliers including Forvia and Marelli. End customers include volume manufacturers, such as Nissan, Ford, GM and Volkswagen Audi Group, and premium luxury car brands such as Bentley and Lamborghini.
In addition, the Group supplies all of its customer base with a range of products for PHEV and BEV platforms and supplies electric car manufacturers, including Rivian and a US-based major EV OEM.
The Group currently supplies component part types to over 64 different models for 21 OEMs.
Interim Trading Update
On Tuesday, 4th August, the Group reported strong first-half revenues of $62.1m for the six months to end-June, a 15% increase over the prior year, driven by customer demand and new program launches in Mexico.
Despite geopolitical challenges impacting operating costs and supply chains, leading to an expected material decrease in underlying profit before tax for the period, the company anticipates significantly stronger profitability in the second half of 2026.
This improvement is attributed to actions taken to enhance the Mexico facility's performance, the new paint facility coming online, and the implementation of a proprietary AI-driven factory operating system across its manufacturing footprint by Q1 2027.
The Company remains confident in meeting market expectations for FY26, with prior market expectations for the full year being revenues of $123.5m and adjusted profit before tax of $10.2m.
Management Comment
CEO Simon Phillips stated that:
"This has been a period of real progress.
After recent years spent focusing on optimisation, revenue is now growing as we start to deliver on our contract wins.
We have launched new programmes at speed, and brought significant new capability online in Mexico, all while global supply chains were under strain.
The additional costs we absorbed in the period were related to geopolitical events, for which we have contract recovery mechanisms, the price for protecting customer production during a time of global disruption and for launching new work at pace in a new facility.
Our factory operating system is the clearest example of how we are changing the way this business runs.
It has given our Mexican management team live control of the factory floor, which is already translating into tighter operational control and lower indirect costs.
Fully leveraging this capability is one of the most exciting opportunities in front of us.”
The Equity
There are some 73.6m shares in issue.
The larger holders include LGT Capital Partners AG (Investment Management) (12.53%), Raymond James Wealth Management Ltd. (Investment Management) (7.34%), Corient Investment Management Ltd. (7.32%), Otus Capital Management Ltd. (4.15%), Premier Fund Managers Ltd. (3.82%), Janus Henderson Investors UK Ltd. (3.64%), Lombard Odier Asset Management (Europe) Ltd. (3.63%), Pehlwan Malik Holdings (3.00%), Peter Gyllenhammar AB (1.99%), HSBC Private Bank (UK) Ltd. (1.84%), and Consistent Unit Trust Management Co. Ltd. (1.53%).
Broker Views
Analyst Caroline de La Soujeole, at Singer Capital Markets, rates the group’s shares as a Buy, with a 70p Target Price.
Her estimates for the current year to end-December are for revenues of $123.5m ($114.8m), with adjusted pre-tax profits of $10.2m ($9.4m), generating earnings of 12.2c (11.8c) per share.
For the coming 2027-year estimates are for $136.3m in revenues, $13.2m profits and 16.1c per share in earnings.
She notes that:
“We estimate 2H26 will need to deliver a c.70-80% weighting of FY26 adj. PBT.
This leaves the company with work to do in 2H, but we are reassured that the 1H cost drag was a one-off, not a change to the underlying cost base, and is recoverable in 2H with management confident of delivering on FY expectations.”
My View
There are geopolitical risks operating anywhere in the globe today, so we must always be aware.
However, I do get a good feel about the potential for this little group, its shares are not expensive at 34p, where they trade on less than 6 times current-year estimated earnings, dropping to 4.4 times prospective.
(Profile 15.09.26 @ 34p set a Target Price of 42p)
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