GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc.

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending GCT Semiconductor Holding, Inc.' 's third quarter 2024 financial results call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. Joining the call today are John Schlafer, GCT's chief executive officer, and Edmonton CFO to discuss our third quarter results. During the call, certain statements we make will be forward-looking. These statements are subject to risk and uncertainties, including those set forth in our Safe Harbor provision for forward-looking statements that can be found at the end of our earnings press release and also in our Form 10-Q that will be filed today, which provide further details about the risk related to our business additionally, except As required by law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to John Schlafer.

Thank you, and thanks to everyone for joining us today for our third quarter 2024 earnings call. As some listeners might still be new to our story, I will give a short summary of our business operation and history before focusing on our Q3 financial results. GCT was founded in Silicon Valley in 1998 and is a fabulous semiconductor company that specializes in the design, manufacturing, and sale of communication semiconductors, including high-speed wireless communication technologies. We have successfully developed and supplied communication semiconductor chipsets and modules to leading wireless operators and their suppliers worldwide, specifically to original design manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers, ODMs and OEMs, for portable wireless hotspots, indoor and outdoor, wireless modems, and industrial machine-to-machine applications, which includes a very broad set of use cases like security, tracking, metering, and satellite applications. Our focus on fourth-generation chipsets, or 4G LTE, has paved the way for even more advanced technology, specifically 5G chipsets, which we are now close to finalizing the development of. The segment of the market we are targeting nearly all the other wireless devices besides smartphones is not only very large and diverse, but also benefits from several positive tailwinds like the rise of artificial intelligence, the lack of established alternatives in the West to Qualcomm, and other geopolitical factors. Turning now to an overview of our third quarter and some of our operational highlights since we last updated the public in August. We are pleased to report that we have seen positive rebound of our product sales in the third quarter. as we have guided the capital markets in our last earnings call. As I have mentioned back then too, the industry is currently in the midst of a planned transition from sales of 4G chipsets to 5G for many use cases. But even as we focus on launching our 5G product and servicing that demand, we anticipate continuous demand for both our existing and new 4G products as these products are ideal for industrial, utility, and satellite applications which have long-term use cases. We expect continued demand for these products, even as the market evolves towards 5G. With the additional expected initial deliveries of our 5G chipsets, we are looking forward to offering high demand, high quality products to large and rapidly growing markets. Which brings me to our most important topic. We have made significant advancements towards the anticipated commencement of volume shipments of our 5G chipsets in the first half of 2025, as previously guided. We are very excited about this milestone coming closer and closer and are looking forward to the beginning of next year. However, we have not only progressed our chipsets, we have also progressed some of our key relationships that we expect to drive demand for our chipsets. As we have announced earlier in Q3, we have signed an MOU with a global tier one communications supplier for development collaborations on fixed wireless access devices using GCT's 5G chipsets. This MOU marks a continuation of an existing key customer relationship now moving to include 5G. We expect the launch of FWA devices related to this activity to commence in the second half of 2025 and look forward to reporting further positive updates on this in the future. The announcements we have made for this earnings call and last are a clear testimonial to our progress in transitioning to 5G and showcasing the momentum we are gaining in building the customer foundation for upcoming growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Edmund to discuss our financial results.

Thank you, John. Turning now to our third quarter financial results. Further details on which can be found in the thank you that will be on file with the SEC. Net revenues decreased by 1.9 million or 42% to 2.6 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2024 from 4.5 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2023. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease of 2.3 million in product sales, partially offset by an increase of 0.4 million in service revenue. However, sequentially when compared to Q2, net revenue has risen by 77.8% or $1.1 million. Cost of net revenues decreased by $3 million or 75% to $1 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024. from $3.9 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2023. Product costs decreased by $3.3 million from $4 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2023 to $0.7 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by a decrease in direct product costs as we sold fewer units. Service costs were $0.3 million for the three months ended September 30th, 2024. Service costs were nominal for the three months ended September 30th, 2023. Gross margin increased to 62% for the three months end of September 30th, 2024, from 12% for the three months end of September 30th, 2023, primarily due to changes in the product mix. Specifically, we increased the share of reference platform sales and generated higher margins from our service offerings during the third fiscal quarter of 2024. In addition, this reference platform sales will help our customers accelerate the integration and adoption of our 5G chip in their respective product development activities. once our 5G chips are launched. Research and development expenses increased by $1.8 million, or 78%, from $2.4 million for the three months end of September 30, 2023, to $4.2 million for the three months end of September 30, 2024. This change was primarily due to a $1.5 million increase in research and development expenses, mainly related to professional services related to the design of 5G chip products. Sales and marketing expenses increased by $0.2 million or 28% from $0.7 million for the three months end of September 30th, 2023 to $0.9 million for the three months end of December 30th, 2024. This increase was primarily due to personnel related costs. General and administrative expenses increased by $0.9 million, or 66% from $1.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023, to $2.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024. The change was primarily due to a $0.4 million increase in stock-based compensation related to RSUs, a $0.4 million increase in professional and other expenses related to the private company operations, and a $0.1 million increase in personnel-related costs. Before turning back over to John for his closing remarks, I want to spend some time talking about our balance sheet and our liquidity, related to what will be on file for our ending balance for the third quarter, which might not fully mirror this progress as of today. While we closed the third quarter with cash and cash equivalents of 1.8 million, we also had net accounts receivable of 6.4 million. During the third quarter, we have negotiated with some of our lenders and successfully extended approximately $22.6 million of current liabilities into 2025. We also repaid $2.5 million of bank borrowings and $1 million of promissory notes to further clean up our balance sheet. In addition to the current ELOC, with b rally and to further strengthen our financial position we are in active discussions with our financial advisors and potential investors to pursue financing and capital raising transactions as we are preparing for the commercial launch of our 5g products with this i will turn it back over to john thanks edmund

In closing, we are thrilled about the growth opportunity ahead of us. We have announced major partnerships and have made significant operational progress that shows the momentum we are gaining to build the customer foundation for substantial growth based on our 5G chipset launch. We remain on track to launch volume shipments of our 5G chipsets in the first half of 2025 and are excited about the impact of that for our company and for our stock as we value all of our shareholders. Finally, I would like to thank our employees, partners, and our customers for their continued efforts and dedication to the company, which ultimately drives our success as an organization. Together, we're focused on driving innovation, supporting the global transition to 5G solutions, and delivering strong, profitable growth. We are entering a new phase as we transition toward the commercialization of our 5G technology and hope you are with us for the journey. This is truly a great time to be part of GCT. I will now turn the call back over to the operator who will assist us in taking your questions.

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. One moment for our first question. Our first question is going to come from the line of Craig Ellis with B. Reilly Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you for taking the question, and guys, congratulations on the strong quarter. John, I wanted to start just by understanding some of the dynamics within products which seem to outperform. Can you talk a little bit more about the nature of the strength? How broad-based was it, and was the program or programs that you were involved in something that was fulfilled inside of the quarter, or is there a benefit from this program or program spilling in the fourth quarter or even the first quarter.

So you're talking about the product sales, right?

Yeah. The product sales, which were up significantly quarter on quarter.

Yes. So that was comprised of chip sales and also platform sales. And And the product sale that we had in the quarter, we'll continue to see that in future quarters. Yeah, so that's a continuing activity.

And the platform sales, will those persist or were those something that you recorded in 3Q that put customers instead for 5G products ramping next year and won't recur in 4Q or 1Q?

I would say that that is, so the platform sales, although we tend to do that as often as we can, they're hard to predict and they tend to not be repeating, but it is how you characterize it is something that will help with future 5G chip sales in the future.

Got it. And on that note, John, you expressed confidence in 5G's volume ramp in the first half of the year. Can you talk a little bit more about what's happening with some of the things that would precede volumes moving up, whether it's customer sampling or getting production started, some of the fulfillment things, et cetera?

Right. So the sampling right now will happen in the January time frame. And as soon as that happens, we'll be expediting the completion of the certification process. And then, of course, we will go into manufacturing for volume shipments. Also, I would say that the previous platforms that we've sold to support our 5G sales as well as the recent announcements that we've had with development activities for FWA devices and so forth will actually drive volumes for those products.

Got it. And so it sounds like just given those activities in the first quarter, is it fair to say that the volume shipments would really be occurring more in 2Q inside the first half? Or do you think you'll actually be shipping in volume and rebrecking inside of 1Q?

We could see some in Q1, but you're right, it'll ramp up more, and we'll see more in Q2.

Got it. And then, not to leave you out, Edmund, I'll just ask one for you and then go back into the queue. We obviously had a very nice gross margin quarter in the third quarter. It seems that that was due to interest segment mix items in both services and products and products on the gross margin side helped by platform sales. And any color on what we might expect for the way those dynamics might play out as we look at either 4Q or 1Q?

Craig, this is Edmund. This is a very good question from that sense. The gross margin for Q3, actually there are two areas that has boosted our gross margin. Number one is the product mix, including the platform sales that we have. sold in Q3, that has a very nice growth margin in that sense, and then bring up the whole product growth margin segment for us. So we anticipated that a long-term guidance from our growth margin for products in the high 30s to basically meeting maybe 40% from that sense. into 2025 as when we launch our 5G products. So these are basically the guidance that we have been expecting and discussing from that sense. As for the surface size of the gross margin, we expect that it will stay relatively the same in the 50%, but our surface makes in terms of ramping up next year will be slowly decreasing for next year. The reason for that is the product will ramp up faster from that perspective, and the service will relatively maintain similar level to this year. So from that sense, I'm not too sure if that answers your question, Clay.

That really did. Edmund, the bottom line is, I think if I'm hearing you correctly, is that you would expect product gross margin and gross margin overall to migrate back towards 40% as 5G ramps and as volumes pick up significantly and as mix skews much more towards products. I think that's what you were conveying correctly.

That's correct. Because of the fact that we are managing the yield from the foundry standpoint and also when we first rolled out our 5G products, we have to stay competitive in order to gain share. So we don't expect the margin to be very high when we first launch our products. But hopefully over time when we gain more market stability and share from that sense, And the yield will improve over time. We expect the margin maybe improving into 2026.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you. And as a reminder, to ask a question at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone. I'm showing no further questions at this time, so this is going to conclude today's question and answer session. Thank you for joining us. This concludes our third quarter 2024 conference call. A replay will be available for a limited time on our website later today.