Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Magnet Chip Sunmay Conductor Corporation's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 1-1 again. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Eugia Zai, Managing Director of the Blue Shirt Group. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks, Operator. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us to discuss MagnetShift's financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. Third quarter earnings release that was issued today after the market closed can be found on the company's investor relations website. Webcast replay of today's call will be archived on our website shortly afterwards. Joining me today are Y.J. Kim, MagnetChip's Chief Executive Officer, and Shin Young Park, our Chief Financial Officer. Y.J. will discuss the company's recent operating performance and business overview. Shin Young will review financial results for the quarter and provide guidance for the fourth quarter of 2023. There will be a Q&A session following the prepared remarks. During the course of this conference call, we may make forward-looking statements about MagnetChip's business outlook and expectations. Our forward-looking statements and all other statements that are not historical facts reflect our beliefs and predictions as of today and therefore are subject to risks and uncertainties as described in the safe harbor statement found in our SEC filings. During the call, we will also discuss non-GAAP financial measures. Non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. We are intended to illustrate an alternative measure of Magnetip's operating performance that may be useful. Reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most direct comparable gap measure can be found in our third quarter earnings release in the investor relations section of our website. With that, I will now turn the call over to YJ Kim. YJ?

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to MagnetChip's Q3 earnings call. Starting with our financials, our Q3 results were in line with our expectations. Q3 revenue was $61.2 million. down 14% year-over-year and up slightly sequentially. Gross margin was 23.6%, down 60 basis points year-over-year, primarily due to unfavorable product mix and higher FAB costs, but recovered 140 basis points sequentially on higher FAB utilization. Overall, market conditions were challenging, but we remained focused on driving towards smartphone design wins in our display business and launching competitive products in our power business. Let me provide updates to each of our business segments. Beginning with our display business, Q3 revenue was in line with our expectation at $6.4 million, up slightly year-over-year and down 33.7% sequentially. Our OLED revenue remained muted due largely to slow-down planned design wins in China from our large Korean panel customers. During the quarter, we worked to expand our footprints with new global panel makers and smartphone OEMs. We are disappointed that our OLED ramp lagged our original expectations, but our confidence in the longer-term display business remained intact. we are now engaged in projects that span the entire smartphone market spectrum from mass tier to premium tier segments our goal as always is to deliver differentiated and competitive products to drive long-term growth as an industry leader in display at our new global tier one panel customer our third oled ddic chip successfully passed qualification at the end of the quarter and is now in the designing phase with a leading Chinese smartphone OEM for its flagship model that is scheduled to be launched at the end of the year. As previously announced in the second quarter, we successfully qualified a second chip with our global tier one panel customer and entered into the designing stage with a global smartphone maker for smartphones expected to launch in mid-2024. We now have two design-ins at leading smartphone OEMs outside of Korea, and we are optimistic that they will lead to design wins and production treatments that will contribute to revenue in 2024. In the second quarter, we also announced that we began developing a fourth OLED DDIC project with our global TO1 panel maker. This next-gen DDIC provides enhanced features and specs geared towards the growing affordable smartphone market. This quarter, we saw increased interest for this chip by multiple smartphone OEMs, and we are expecting to provide IC samples to our panel customer by early next year. Additionally, our first OLED DDIC chip is now in the final stage of qualification with aftermarket OEMs in China. Finally, during the quarter, we started a new development on our mass market OLED DDIC chip with another Asian panel maker. This fifth product is aimed at expanding market share into the low to mid-range OLED smartphone display market. We currently expect this OLED device to drive revenue growth in the second half of 2024 and beyond. With regards to our OLED automotive business, We began production shipments to our large Korean panel maker for three different car models from two top-tier European car manufacturers between May and July. Revenue from those devices started beginning in May, and we currently expect those devices will continue to contribute to revenue for the remainder of the year. Moving on to our power business. Q3 revenue was $45.2 million, down 19.9% year-over-year, and up 8.4% sequentially. Sequentially, our power business benefited from a higher mix of premium-tier products and strong demand in consumer computing and communication markets, such as TVs, notebooks, and smartphones. However, industrial markets, which had been an area of strength for us, over the past several quarters slowed by double-digit percentages in Q3 as our customers reduced orders to better manage their inventories. Operationally, we continued our strong momentum of design activities, particularly in automotive power products. In Q3, we secured two new design wins and three design-ins with two of the top five automakers in the world, and we expect revenue contribution over the coming quarters. We also continue to innovate. In September, we announced two new IGBTs for the EV market that provide best-in-class efficiency and heat dissipation featuring advanced field stop technology. In October, we unveiled our eighth-generation 150-volt medium-voltage MOSFETs. Finally, power product ASPs continue to remain stable, increasing 11.3% year-over-year, but down slightly by 5% sequentially. In summary, in our power business, our product portfolio is getting stronger as we continue to focus on rolling out next-generation power products to maintain our momentum of design ins and wins. Looking ahead, heightened global geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty we expect demand to remain weak driven by normal q4 seasonality and inventory correction in industrial end markets in our display business we are very optimistic about the long-term growth of our oled business we continue to collaborate closely with our new global panel customer and we are excited about the new product and new Asia-based panel customer partnerships. These new products offer compelling competitive advantages and are strategically aimed at tapping into the rapidly expanding OLED market in the Asia region. Finally, a few comments on our previously announced plan to separate our display and power businesses into separate legal entities. As we announced previously, Our internal separation of display and power business will be effectuated by establishing a separate operating company under Magnet Chip Semiconductor Limited, MSK, the company's primary operating subsidiary. In September, we established a limited liability company registered in South Korea named Magnet Chip Mixed Signal Limited, MMS. The separation will include the contribution of assets and liabilities of the display business and the PowerIC business to MMS. Transfer of directly associated resources such as sales, marketing, and R&D, as well as allocation of shared expenses of certain corporate functions, including HR, finance, legal, and IT. This internal separation is expected to be completed and go in effect on January 1, 2024. Thank you to our shareholders for your patience, and we appreciate your support as we work towards our goals. I will now turn the call over to Xunyang to review the financials in detail.

Thank you, Y.J., and welcome to everyone on the call. Let's start with key financial metrics for Tuesday. Total revenue in Q3 was $61.2 million, up 0.4% sequentially, and down 14% year-over-year. Revenue from the Standard Products business was $51.6 million, and revenue from transitional foundry services was $9.6 million. Within Standard Products, display business revenue was $6.4 million, and power business revenue was $45.2 million. Gross margin in Q3 was 23.6%, up from 22.2% in Q2, mainly driven by higher FAB utilization. Compared to the same period last year, gross margin decreased 60 basis points from 24.2%, primarily as a result of unfavorable product mix and higher FAB costs. As a reminder, our transitional foundry services contract with Key Foundry expired at the end of August. that we are planning to wind down these foundry services over the next several quarters. Transition of foundry services accounts for approximately 30% of our GUMI capacity. We anticipate to begin the process of converting portions of the idle capacity to power sender products around the middle of 2024. Until such wind down is completed, we will continue to provide these foundry services to key foundry based on mutually agreed pricing terms. Turning now to operating expenses, Q3 combined RMD and SG&A was $23.7 million. This compares to RMD and SG&A of $23.4 million in Q2 2023 and $24.7 million in Q3 last year. Stock compensation charges including operating expenses were $2.1 million in Q3 compared to $2 million in Q2 and $0.8 million in Q3 last year. Q3 operating loss was $9.2 million. This compared to an operating loss of $10.7 million in Q2 and operating loss of $10 million in Q3 2022. On a non-GAAP basis, Q3 adjusted operating loss was $7.1 million compared to adjusted operating loss of $7.8 million in Q2 and $6.6 million in Q3 last year. Q3 adjusted EBITDA was negative $2.7 million. This compares to a negative $3.6 million in Q2 and negative $3 million in Q3 last year. Net loss in Q3 was $5.2 million as compared with a net loss of $3.9 million in Q2 and a net loss of $17.2 million in Q3 last year. Our GAAP diluted loss per share in Q3 was $0.13, as compared with diluted loss per share of $0.09 in Q2 and $0.38 in Q3 last year. Our non-GAAP diluted loss per share in Q3 was $0.04, as compared with diluted loss per share of $0.06 in Q2 and earnings per share of $0.02 in Q3 last year. Our weighted average diluted shares outstanding for the quarter were 40.1 million shares. In Q3, under our new stock buyback program of $15 million, we repurchased approximately 0.7 million shares for $5.4 million. Moving to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with no debt and cash of $166.6 million, down from $173 million at the end of Q2 2023. The primary cash outflows during the quarter were approximately $5.4 million of stock buybacks and $0.8 million in capital expenditures. Net accounts receivable at the end of the quarter totaled $41.1 million, which represents an increase of 17.5% from June 2, 2023. Our day-to-day outstanding for Q3 was 62 days and compares to 52 days in June 2. Increase in accounts receivable and day stays outstanding was attributable to the timing of payments from certain customers as the quarter end fell on a holiday in Korea, and the vast majority of related payments were collected in early October. Inventories net at the end of the quarter totalled $30.8 million. This compares to $32.3 million in Q2 2023. Our average days in inventory for Q3 was 61 days and compares to 62 days in Q2. Lastly, Q3 CapEx was $0.8 million. We continue to expect our CapEx in 2023 to be approximately $7 million as we previously will test on our Q2 earnings call. This is nearly 70% lower from the 2022 level. Now, moving to our fourth quarter guidance. Amid heightened global geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty, we expect power demand to soften in Q4, driven by normal weaker Q4 seasonality and inventory correction in industry and market. While actual results may vary, for Q4, MagnetShop currently expects revenue to be in the range of $50 million to $55 million, including approximately $8 million of transitional factory boundary services. And gross profit margin to be in the range of 22.5% to 24.5%. Thank you. Now I'll turn the call back over to Yujia. Yujia?

Thanks, Xinyang. That concludes the prepared remarks section of our call today. Operator, you may now open the call for questions.

Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question at this time, please press star 11 on your telephone. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Suji De Silva from Roth Capital Markets. Your question, please.

Hi, YJ. Hi, Shenyang. So the second and third chips for the lead Asia customer in the display market, are the smartphone designs that are downstream from them, are those secured already or still being competed for? I know you talked about volume ramp timing, but curious whether that customer has already won smartphone designs. to understand where we are in that process.

Thank you for the question. So on those two smartphones, first of all, those two smartphones are for the premium smartphones. On the second chip, it's for the Chinese flagship phone. And we are going through the final qualification. We are the two two finalists for the phone and we will be the second source so the the volume will be determined after the qualification is done on the second trip it's for a global smartphone maker they typically sell around 10 million a year but they do have several models and at this time we are the considered vendor for one of the model and we are for the low-end model and carriage volume. And that is expected to launch in the Q2 next year. The first ship is expected to launch end of this year, the Chinese flagship.

Okay. That's very helpful, YJ. And then the second China panel customer who's coming on after this first one, should we think of that one as coming to market faster than the first one? Have there I guess, any more broader learnings in the China market that you've been able to benefit from as you bring incremental panel customers up over there?

No, I think the first three trips will come to revenue first. The fourth trip will come probably towards the second half of next year.

Okay. And on the gross margin side... I know the revenue is kind of below trend here, and that's tamping the gross margin, but what are the drivers and timing of gross margin recovery? Is it simply utilization or are there factors? Is the wind down of the FAB3 service contract, is that part of what gets margin back up? Any color on the trajectory of gross margin from here would be helpful.

I mean, the gross margin itself, as you explained, I mean, that's a combination of the factory manufacturing cost, production cost, utilization rate, and product mix in the next year. So it will all going to impact our gross margin going forward. But the, I mean, YJ can add to this one, but I mean, the power, we explained that we have a record levels of the design in the wings. And although the revenue was, I mean, not the level, but the ASP trend has been strong and we have been increasing the mix of the premium product. So with all of those, we're going to kind of have to offset some of the impact that we will have from the kind of the winding down the boundary transitional, the services.

Okay. My next question is on the FAB 3 wind down in mid-24. Can you remind us the incremental revenue opportunity I guess would be for power as you free up that capacity for non-service businesses?

I mean, really depending on the mix, right? Because when we got the power product from Chief Foundry, depending on like 20-25%, and we also explained that about 30% of our capacity was for the Foundry services. So, I mean, really depending on the demand and the mix, but we'll have to kind of take up the equipment for the Foundry services and put it back, start another equipment for the power. I mean, the 2024 is going to be some transition period because we're going to start the process in the middle of 2024. I see.

And then lastly, YJ, on the separation plan for the end of the year, can you just remind us what the benefits you expect are for investors as we get closer to that so we can kind of prepare for that separation and look for what that triggers for you guys?

Yeah, so it provides many benefits A, you get to focus. Two, really focus on the P&L. And three, transparency, as well as four, there are more freedom for independent investment and the strategic opportunities. Okay.

Terrific. Thanks, Y.J.

Thanks. Thank you. Thank you. One moment for our next question. And as a reminder, if you do have a question at this time, please press star one, one on your telephone. And our next question comes from the line of Quinton Bolton from Needham and Company. Your question, please.

Hey guys, this is Nick on for Quinn. You gave some color on the power and foundry business for next quarter. Can you give color on display? Will it be flat quarter over quarter and, maybe discuss a driver's near term of that business?

Yeah, I think that the business on the display would be flattish, but as Jinyoung explained, there are some weakness in the industrial end market on the power, so that's the most revenue down driver. And that's the similar trend we are seeing from our peers. We know this TIO on Semi called out the weakness in industrial land. And we already said today that we had double-digit percent decline in industrial. The industrial was one of the key strengths that we saw this year. So I guess this is happening right now on the industrial weakness in the market.

That makes sense. Yeah, we've heard that from a number of other companies. Can you talk about the automotive contribution that you've seen in the quarter? I think we were talking maybe a million, two million, and 24, just wondering if we're on for 23, calendar 23, just wondering if we're on track for that or coming in a little soft.

Yeah, so, you know, we did not have automotive until like last year where we shipped about 600, 700K, and this year we expect to finish a couple of million dollars. So we're on track. So we are accelerating design wins on the automotive, as you saw. We had a two design win and three design in this quarter. So we look forward to get more design wins. And also the automotive section on the EVs, we see a big opportunity also in China. China has an EV that ranges from $25,000 to... You know, 50,000, that's the sweet spot. And then they're introducing 100,000. So I think that's why they're doing, you know, 3 million units of EV alone. So those are the new things we see. And to be competitive in the low-end EV market, I think IGBT is a key. And that's one of our strengths as well.

Thanks. Can we actually send another second down on the China market? I may be too early for you to get a really good pulse, but we've heard mixed data points as far as demand evaporating. But then we just heard from Allegro this morning that the demand is actually really strong. Are you seeing anything specific as far as near-term demand in China?

On the automotive EV, I believe China is strong. I think what we are hearing, the EVs in the non-China market is slowing down. So I think that's because of the EV price in China is much competitive. Rest of the world, the EV price is very high. I think that's what it is. And as I said, the IGBT is a key solution for more affordable EVs.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for that. And then last one for me, the Fab 3 wind down, is there incremental CapEx required to transition those tools to your power products? And how should we think about CapEx in 2024? Thanks.

We haven't guided for the 2024 the entire CapEx, but in terms of the wind down process and conversion process, at this point, we do not really expect any material CapEx to be spent. So probably a couple of millions, but not a lot.

And I think we mentioned before that if we increase the capacity by 40%, the capex is only 20 to 25 million. So it's not a big thing.

Does that answer your questions?

Yes, thank you.

Thank you. This does conclude the question and answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Ujia Zai.

Thanks, everyone. This concludes our Q3 earnings conference call. Please look for details of our future events on Magnet Shop's Investor Relations website, and thank you and take care.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.