Restructuring
On September 13, 2005, Visteon and Ford reached an agreement whereby seventeen of the less-profitable Visteon plants and six offices would be transferred to an independent business entity called Automotive Components Holdings LLC. This action, intended to assure the long-term viability of Visteon, involved the transfer of 18,000 hourly workers and 5000 salaried workers to the new entity, reducing Visteon to approximately 52,000 employees worldwide and $11 billion in annual sales. Three of the plants are in Mexico, the remaining plants and six offices are in the US. Automotive Components Holdings (ACH), managed by Ford, was referred to as a "temporary entity", as its purpose was to prepare the plants and facilities for sale. By the end of 2007, all ACH operations had been closed, scheduled for closure, merged at least partially, or sold (two back to Ford), with transactions to be completed by the end of 2008 except for one plant which is to remain an ACH facility until its closure in 2009.[5]
On March 31, 2009, Visteon's UK subsidiary was deemed insolvent, and placed into administration.[6] The UK subsidiary had never been profitable, and the insolvency was the result of the US parent company being unwilling to continue to support the British operation. The administrators, KPMG, immediately moved to close all three Visteon UK factories and made 565 workers redundant. Visteon's profitable UK subsidiary Visteon Engineering Services (VES) remained unaffected by the restructuring.
As a result, workers occupied the plants in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Enfield, London, and picketed the plant in Basildon, Essex, to gain better redundancy packages.[7]
Bankruptcy and emergence
The subprime mortgage crisis greatly impacted the auto industry and left Visteon with little demand. During early March 2009, Visteon was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange for trading at extremely low levels. This action came after Visteon shares dropped from 7 to 2 cents.[8] On May 28, 2009, the company filed voluntary petitions to reorganize Visteon Corporation and certain of its U.S. subsidiaries under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.[9] The case was heard in Delaware on May 29, 2009, by Judge Christopher Sontchi,[10] where Visteon was granted Chapter 11 protection.
Visteon completed its reorganization and emerged from Chapter 11 on October 1, 2010.[11]
