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spk04: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Vishay Intertechnology Q3 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, 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. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Peter Henrici, Investor Relations.
spk00: Thank you, Josh. Good morning and welcome to Vishay Intertechnology's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. I am joined today by Joel Smekal, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and by Laurie Lipkeman, our Chief Financial Officer. This morning, we reported results for our third quarter. A copy of our earnings release is available in the Investor Relations section of our website at ir.vichet.com. This call is being broadcast live over the web and can be accessed through our website. In addition, today's call is being recorded and will be available via replay on our website. During the call, we will be referring to a slide presentation, which we also posted at irvichet.com. You should be aware that in today's conference call, we will be making certain forward-looking statements that discuss future events and performance. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements. For discussion of factors that could cause results to differ, please see today's press Viches, Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are including information in our press release and on this conference call on various gap and non-gap measures. We have included a full gap to non-gap reconciliation in our press release as well as in the presentation posted on ir.viches.com. which we believe you will find useful when comparing our GAAP and non-GAAP results. We use non-GAAP measures because we believe they provide useful information about the operating performance of our businesses and should be considered by investors in conjunction with GAAP measures. Now, I turn the call over to President and Chief Executive Officer Joel Smeka. Thank you, Peter.
spk03: Good morning, everyone. I'll start my remarks on slide three with a review of the demand trends for the third quarter, and then Lori will take you through the highlights of our financial results. After that, I'll come back to give you a progress report on the near-term initiatives we're implementing to improve all customer-facing aspects of our business as we set the stage for faster top-line growth and margin expansion. then we'd be happy to answer any of your questions. Today for the third quarter, we are reporting revenue of $853.7 million, which is within our guidance range of $840 million to $880 million. As expected, revenue declined both quarter over quarter and year over year due to inventory adjustments by our distribution and EMS partners in response to softened demand, among industrial customers and also our contracting lead times. Looking at our revenue mix, first by end market, automotive, which accounted for 37% of total revenue, was 2% higher than the second quarter and grew 10% versus the third quarter last year. Our sales supporting the further electronic content of internal combustion engine vehicles continues to be strong. Design activities related to increasing electronic content in EVs, hybrids, and internal combustion engines are accelerating. Industrial, representing 35% of total revenue, declined 9% versus the second quarter and 18% from last year. Macroeconomic uncertainties and higher interest rates curb demand in all regions, And in China, the economic recovery has yet to find solid footing. As a result, channel and end customer inventories are at a higher level, which will take longer to burn off. Nevertheless, design activity in the areas of industrial automation, smart grid infrastructure, EV charging infrastructure, among other applications, has not slowed down. In addition, a shipment of our largest capacitors to support an electrical grid project was pushed out to the fourth quarter. In aerospace and defense, revenue was slightly below the second quarter, but grew 19% versus the third quarter last year on continued strong demand from commercial aviation and from weapons system contractors in the US and Europe. Defense orders have been increasing at a faster rate now since the war in Israel began last month. Revenue from medical customers came in 14% below second quarter and 2% below the third quarter last year due to the timing of orders and product mix. Here we build the customer forecasted demand and have increased our inventories based on strong demand signals from our medical diagnostic equipment and implantable devices customers. However, toward the end of the quarter, some shipments were held up as customers faced supply chain issues. Weekly polls now have resumed in Q4. Consistent with weak demand trends during the first half of the year, revenue from the other end market segments declined 5% versus the second quarter and 26% versus last year, mostly on volume declines. In terms of channel sales, increases in OEM revenue both quarter over quarter and year over year were overshadowed by the declines in distribution sales and to a lesser extent declines in EMS sales. During the quarter, distribution revenue fell 10% compared to the second quarter and was 18% lower than the third quarter last year as a result of both inventory adjustments and pauses in buying through the channel, primarily by industrial and EMS accounts. Distribution inventory at quarter end was 24 weeks versus 21 weeks last quarter, with increases in all regions, more so in the Americas. During the quarter, we intentionally increased distribution inventory as part of our strategy to expand our participation in this higher margin channel. I'll come back to this topic after Lori reviews our third quarter results. POS decreased 7%, reflecting weakened industrial demand in all regions. OEM revenue grew 4% quarter over quarter and 11% year over year, driven by strength in demand from automotive customers in each region. EMS revenue declined 6% quarter-over-quarter and 14% year-over-year, reflecting inventory adjustments by EMS customers, as lead times are now mostly inside of 10 weeks, and demand from their customers softened in all regions. Before turning the call over to Lori for a review of our financial results, I want to comment on the situation in Israel. As you likely know, Vishay has three manufacturing locations and one office in Israel and 2,400 employees. In the face of daily challenges and the emotional toll from the October 7 attacks, each of the sites continues to operate normally and ships parts without interruption. In fact, for over 50 years, Vishay has shipped product from Israel to all regions of the world without interruption. We're in communication with those customers who have expressed concern about our ability to deliver products from Israel. Since Bichet is classified as an essential business in Israel, we're able to operate with a high attendance, typically greater than 90%. I have the utmost admiration for our employees in Israel, for their fortitude, and their resilience, we are extremely grateful for their steadfast dedication in this difficult time. Globally as well, I would like to thank all of our employees for their continued contribution to transforming Bechet into a business-minded organization focused on driving growth and margin expansion and putting the customer first. We'll now go to Laurie for the financial results.
spk01: thank you joel good morning everyone i'll start my review of our third quarter results on slide four revenues for the third quarter were 853.7 million dollars compared to the second quarter revenues decreased 4.3 percent reflecting a 3.2 percent decrease in volume and a 0.8 percent reduction in pricing Pricing was essentially flat with our OEM, automotive, and industrial customers under contract and impacted somewhat by price pressures on high inventory products, primarily in Asia, sold through distribution channels and to EMS to industrial end markets. By reportable business segment, revenues of MOSFETs, diodes, opto, and inductors were essentially stable. the decrease was mainly attributable to resistors and capacitors. Compared to the third quarter last year, revenues were down 7.7%, reflecting a volume decrease of 10.2%, primarily related to last year's spike in MOSFETs volume following the Shanghai shutdown of quarter two, and partially offset by 0.9% increases in prices. At quarter end, book to bill for consolidated Vichet was 0.63, and backlog at quarter end was 5.5 months compared to 6.4 months at the end of the prior quarter, as lead times continued coming down in all product segments. We returned a total of $31.1 million to shareholders. comprised of dividends of $13.9 million and stock repurchases of $17.3 million. The next slide presents income statement highlights. Gross profit was $237.6 million for a margin of 27.8% compared to 28.9% for the second quarter and in line with our guidance. Compared to the second quarter, gross margin decreased primarily due to lower volume. SG&A expenses were $122.5 million, $0.4 million lower than the second quarter, slightly lower than our guidance due to foreign currency effects. Operating income decreased $19.5 million versus the second quarter on lower gross profits. Operating income decreased $68.0 million versus the prior year through the lower volume related gross profit and higher SG&A expenses, primarily reflecting annual salary increases, general inflation, and equity incentive compensation. Operating margin was 13.5% compared to 15.1% for the second quarter and 19.8% for the third quarter of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was $159.6 million for an adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.7%. Our normalized effective tax rates were 26.9% and 28.0% for the quarter and the year-to-date periods respectively. our gap effective tax rates were 31.7% and 29.3% for the quarter and year-to-date periods respectively, reflecting the non-deductibility of most of the loss on early extinguishment of debt. For 2023, we expect a normalized effective tax rate of approximately 28.5% for the full year and approximately 29.5% for the fourth quarter. Gap EPS was $0.47 per share, and adjusted EPS was $0.60 per share compared to $0.68 per share for the second quarter. For your convenience, we have included in the body of the presentation a chart depicting revenue, gross margin, and book-to-bill ratios for each of our reportable business segments. Turning to slide seven, we present cash conversion psychometrics. DSOs were 48 days, two days higher than the second quarter, and DPOs were one day higher at 33 days. Inventory was $643.5 million at quarter end, down compared to $660.0 million as of the end of 2Q. Inventory days outstanding were 96 days compared to 94 days for the second quarter, bringing the cash conversion cycle for the third quarter to 111 days. On slide 8, you can see that cash flow from operations of $122.3 million for the third quarter was higher than the second quarter, which included the annual installment of the transition tax. Total capex was $66.8 million for the quarter, and $38.1 million of the total was invested in capacity expansion. On a trailing 12-month basis, total CapEx was 9.7% of revenue compared to 7.8% for the same period last year, primarily due to our enhanced capacity expansion program related to our growth initiatives. Free cash flow for the quarter was $55.5 million compared to $36.3 million for the second quarter, which included the annual installment of the transition tax. Stockholder returns for the second quarter amounted to $31.1 million, consisting of $13.9 million for our quarterly dividend and $17.3 million for share repurchases. We repurchased 0.6 million shares at an average price of $27.38 per share during the quarter. Total liquidity at quarter end was $1.9 billion, including cash and short-term investments of $1.2 billion and our on-drawn $750 million revolving credit facility. As mentioned in past earnings calls, we use the revolver from time to time to meet short-term financing needs. Turning to slide nine, we present a summary of our debt-related transactions in Q3. We wanted to get ahead of the due date of the existing converts in a rising rate environment. We used the proceeds primarily to repurchase a significant portion of existing converts, effectively refinancing them for an additional five years at the same coupon rate. One of the benefits of these transactions for Veche is that we are enhancing our U.S. liquidity position to support growth initiatives. Turning to slide 10 for our guidance, for the fourth quarter of 2023, revenues are expected to be between $770 and $810 million. Gross profit margin is expected to be in the range of 25.5% plus or minus 50 basis points, and we still expect full-year gross profit to be in the range of 29% plus or minus 50 basis points. SG&A expenses are expected to be $125 million, plus or minus $2 million for the quarter, and $490 million, plus or minus $2 million for the full year at current exchange rates. For 2023, we expect a normalized effective tax rate of approximately 28.5%, with a 4Q rate of approximately 29.5%. Finally, we remain committed to distributing at least 70% of our free cash flow to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock repurchases in accordance with our shareholder return policy. I'll now turn the call back to Joel.
spk03: Thank you, Lori. Let's turn to slide 11 for a review of our key near-term initiatives. As you may recall on my first call as CEO of O'Shea last February, I laid out the broad outline of our three-year plan to expand capacity to support our highest growth and highest return product lines, and to position Bechet to be ready for the next phase of the megatrends in e-mobility, sustainability, and connectivity. 2023 is the staging year for this plan and all elements of the plan are progressing throughout the organization. To be ready for the next phase, we are investing a total of about $1.2 billion between 2023 and 2025. Our plan was to invest approximately $385 million in 2023. For the first nine months of the year, we spent $184 million, $113 million of which was spent on expansion projects. As Lori just reported, we have adjusted our planned CapEx for this year to $350 million due to some delays in installing equipment related to construction projects. We intend to carry over the remaining $35 million into 2024. During the third quarter, in addition to continuing our advanced work on fabs located in Itzehoe, Taipei, and Turin, and our backend semiconductor campus in Croubon, To meet the growing demand of our automotive and industrial customers, we opened our two new facilities in Mexico. At the La Laguna campus, where initially we will focus on mass production for power inductors, equipment and production lines have been set up, qualification of commercial products is underway, and we have the ability to ship commercial products by the end of this year. We will qualify and begin producing automotive-grade products in 2024. The Warris facility is dedicated to increasing output of power metal strip resistors and to meeting the growing demand for these products in all market segments, but with the fastest growing demand in automotive and industrial applications. We completed qualification of most package sizes and expect shipments from this facility in the fourth quarter. For MOSFETs, to meet the increasing demand of our automotive and industrial customers, we have four initiatives underway. First, construction of the new 12-inch MOSFET fab in Germany is on schedule for completion in 2026. Second, we recognize that we need to bridge capacity before 2026 and expand our MOSFET capacity much sooner. For this reason, during the quarter, we signed a long-term supply agreement with Korean based Key Foundry to supply wafers for multi power MOSFET products. Qualification of commercial MOSFETs is underway with mass production of these products in 2024. Third, as mentioned last quarter, we expanded our supply agreements with two of our existing foundry partners to gain more wafer capacity. Fourth, We are moving ahead with the next step toward commercialization of silicon carbide MOSFETs. As announced this morning, we have entered into a definitive purchase and sale agreement with Nexperia to acquire its Newport wafer fab located in South Wales for $177 million in cash. Newport was put on the market in November 2022 when the UK government ordered Chinese operated Nexperia to divest its stake in the fab due to national security concerns. Bichet will acquire a 100% interest in the legal entity which owns and operates this facility. With Newport, we will add an automotive qualified eight inch semiconductor fab staffed by highly skilled and dedicated employees that is located in the heart of a compound semiconductor cluster in South Wales. We plan to make Newport the home for MaxPower and our silicon carbide and GaN technology developments, leveraging relationships with the local scientists in the universities. For our customers, we'll have the entire silicon carbide and GaN manufacturing process under one roof. Closing is estimated to take place in the first quarter of 2024 after securing the UK government's approval, among other closing conditions unique to this transaction. With respect to developing our silicon carbide capabilities, we met our plan to provide samples of 1200 volt planter technology MOSFETs to customers in the third quarter and are on track to release them into production in the fourth quarter. We're continuing to advance the development of 1200 volt trench technology and samples will be available in the second quarter of 2024. 1700 volt planter development is moving forward with samples also available in the second quarter of 2024. And the 650 volt planter technology will also have samples available in the second quarter of 2024. Both die and finish packages will be available in each voltage. We are introducing our silicon carbide technology roadmap to many automotive OEMs and tier one automotive design companies. We have piqued their interest in the technology differentiation of our MOSFET structure. Their engineering will be evaluating samples for EV hybrid automotive programs. For our subcontractor initiative, we also continue to engage in developing partnerships with subcontractors to outsource some commodity products and create incremental capacity for our higher growth and higher return products. We have qualified one subcontractor for thick film chip resistors and have shipped product in the third quarter. These products are both commercially and automotive qualified. For inductors, We bring on additional capacity to support a widening of our product portfolio. We are progressing in our qualification of 23 new products by the end of the year and expect to have volume available mid 2024, which will help build our distributor business. Each passive business unit is evaluating subcontractors. Each semiconductor business unit adds semiconductor capacity to support their front end capacities. In terms of enhancing channel management, we are focused on maximizing the profitability of each channel. During the third quarter, we continue to work on expanding participation with our distributors and regaining their trust in a more reliable machine. Due to our capacity constraints since 2017, we have been playing in a narrow band of partners where we could only support a portion of the distributor's total SKUs. We underserved this market. With capacity investments from last year landing this year and incremental capacity being qualified through subcontracting and foundry agreements and our new facilities in Mexico ramping up, we're in a far better position now to engage with distributors to identify the broader part number mix by technology and widen our presence on the shelf. We are committed to ensuring that we are a reliable supplier to our distributors as the industry moves past the current inventory correction. We also continue to develop our promotion of Boucher solution selling. This quarter, we continue our strategy to build automotive reference designs for engineers to evaluate our broad portfolio of discrete semiconductors and passives. In most power applications, we can populate 80% of the components on the circuit board. In addition to the high-voltage intelligent battery sensor we made available for testing last quarter, we released a 48-volt eFuse circuit breaker in the third quarter. We plan to reduce a bidirectional 48-volt, 12-volt DC-to-DC converter during the fourth quarter. Also at Electronica India in the third quarter, we showcased a few solutions, including the 48-volt eFuse circuit breaker, and the onboard charger and traction inverter for low-speed EV market, which we are developing with the Tier 1 supplier. Let's go to slide 12. This is a review of the goals we set for ourselves in 2023. In terms of expanding external capacity, we are progressing well to qualify and have signed agreements with a number of subcontractors by the end of the year. Our evaluation of where to build Bechet's next manufacturing facility in Europe is on hold a bit pending the acquisition of Newport. We're adding incremental capacity to support growth in our 30 key product lines and developing go-to-market strategies for each of them. We have shipped samples of 1200 volt planter technology MOSFETs and are on track with the development of the 650 volt and 1700 volt planter technology. Finally, we remain committed to holding an analyst day in 2024. We will provide an update on the timing of this analyst day following the closing of the Newport transaction. Our customers keep telling us they want more product from Bechet. And we are working hard to meet and exceed their expectations of the new Vishay. Our final note, I want to share with you, we are planning to attend the Needham Annual Growth Conference on January 18. And we look forward to meeting you there. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator to start the Q&A session.
spk04: Thank you. To ask a question during the session, 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 questions. Our first question comes from Joshua Burkhalter with TD Cowan. You may proceed.
spk06: Hi, good morning, everyone. This is Sam on behalf of Josh. First and foremost, we wish the best for your Israel colleagues. We hope everyone in the families are safe. For my question, congratulations on the announcement of the Nucorp FAB transaction. Could you give us some details on the historical capacity of the FAB or what kind of output the shade can drive from it going forward? And is it exclusively compound semi-focus for auto markets?
spk03: Sam, thank you. Nice to speak with you. At this point, we're not able to share the historical details of the FAB until we get through the closing process. What's in the press release is what we're able to share at the moment. Capacities and those things will be able to get into much more detail after the close, which we foresee in February.
spk06: Understood. Thank you for that, Collar. And then as my follow-up, Laurie, I think you mentioned you had a comment about pricing that my signal cut out. So historically, price erosion and competition has been limited to the commodity product lines that you have. Are these pricing pressures still contained to commodity skews in the quarter, or are you seeing it expand to impact other parts of your non-commodity portfolio that aren't anchored to long-term auto contracts, for example?
spk01: No, they remain with the commodity product lines.
spk06: Excellent. Thank you so much. I'll jump back in the queue.
spk04: Thank you. One moment for questions. Our next question comes from Ruplu Bhattacharya with Bank of America. You may proceed.
spk02: Hi. Thank you for taking my questions and my prayers. Hi, Ruplu. Hi. And my prayers are with the families in Israel as well. With respect to the Newport wafer fab that you're acquiring, Can you give us some more details, like how many employees are you taking on, and how does this change your annual CapEx and OpEx spend? Is this part of the prior announced $1.2 billion over three years, or is this in addition to that?
spk03: It is in addition to that $1.2 billion. It's been part of our strategy since the MaxPower acquisition last October last to bring in-house the capability of silicon carbide. As we've met with a number of automotive customers, this is a very important requirement that they're engaging suppliers that have the in-house capability of the process. So we like our technology from Max Power. We need to find a home for it, and we see that this Nexperia fab, Newport, is a great home for this with the universities that surround it there's quite a technology group at three universities that develop wide band gap technologies so we see this as quite a benefit for us going forward the details of the fab the employee count the capacities we're just not able to share at this moment it is a working fab It is in silicon technology today. It is an 8-inch fab. That is about as far as I can go with describing the fab. But we're quite excited, quite excited in Vichay about what this is going to do to accelerate our silicon carbide product.
spk02: Okay. Thank you for the details there. The press release said that you are intentionally increasing inventory with distribution partners as you broaden participation in this higher margin channel. So I was just looking for some more details on that. Are you specifically, excuse me, partnering with new distributors or are you now selling more product lines through distribution or are you increasing the inventory of existing products at distribution? So if you can give us some details on what exactly this entails and then in terms of implementing go-to-market strategies, do you think this is more or less done? Or do you think you'll be done by the end of 23 or will this carry over into 24 as well?
spk03: Okay. With the distributors, it was always a large part of our business, about 55% of Vache's annual sales. The distributors are asking more from Vache. As I travel and meet with distributors in all regions, they say, Joel, we need more product from Vache. Now, what is that product? We've had the standard part numbers. I say we provided them over the last five years through the last two up cycles that they put on the shelf. We had limited capacity, so we weren't able to really support a broader SKU mix. We had limited capacity, which was allocated to automotive or other large direct customers. The distributors had to find other suppliers to take care of the customer base and the market. Part of our strategy was to re-engage all business channels. Distribution is one of them. So we are broadening our SKUs. We're adding part numbers. Each of the business units is traveling to the distributors in all regions, having product mix discussions to understand the part number demand that we were not supporting. So when I say this is intentional or this is by design, We are raising our inventory dollar at the distributor because we're adding part counts. One of the distributors that we have been working with, we've added 8,000 part numbers this year that we were not participating in. And we have more work to do with that distributor. That's just one example. So Boucher can be a much, much broader supplier. We have the technology. We have the print position with the customer. The distributors see this print position, but we didn't have the capacity or the part numbers in their system to support that demand. So that explains why we say it was intentional. It's part of our growth strategy, and we expect to be an even bigger contributor to our distributors' customers.
spk02: Okay, thank you for the details. Yeah, that's helpful. Um, and maybe for my last question, if I can ask 1 of the near term initiatives that you have is to fill gaps in technology and market coverage. So, just if any, any details there, like, what, uh, what would you like to add in terms of technology and and which markets and, uh, would that be through internal investment? Or is this something that you would consider for? Thank you.
spk03: Okay. Filling gaps in technology. The silicon carbide, we had a gap. That technology was in development with many of our competitors for a decade. So MaxPower is that first filling of the technology gap. GAN. GAN is a technology that we need. We're in development of GAN. We're talking to universities to help us create this technology for Vichay. We're also looking outside for M&A in GAN. Circuit protection is another technology we don't have in Bechet. So we look to broaden our portfolio by including circuit protection. As we sit with customers, as we sit with engineers and with the distributors and EMS, they point Bechet directions. They say, Bechet, look this way. Look to support this technology. So we appreciate those comments, and M&A will be a part of this, for sure, as well as our own internal R&D.
spk02: Okay, thanks for all the details.
spk03: Yeah, nice to talk to you.
spk04: Thank you. One moment for questions. And as a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 1-1 on your telephone. And our next question comes from Matt Sheeran with Stiefel. You may proceed. Yes, thank you.
spk05: Good morning. I have just a couple of near-term modeling questions. So you're guiding gross margin down. It looks like that incremental margin is 50%, 55%. And you're also modeling or guiding OPEX up a little bit. So just trying to figure out, are we bottoming here in terms of margins? It looks like your operating margin will be below 10% for the first time in several quarters. How should we think about as the cycle bottoms here, where margins may bottom, and are there any other cost-cutting initiatives in terms of OpEx or other costs that you may take out in order to keep margins at higher levels?
spk03: Are we at a bottom? It's a great question. Are we at a bottom? We look at the discussions we're having with our channel partners, our automotive customers. Each segment has kind of a different move to it. On the top line, when we look at revenue, we're seeing the aerospace defense moving up. We're seeing automotive flat to continuing to move up. So we're positive on the top side that we can see some of those positive markets offset other markets, which are flat to sideways. The margins are The margins, we are working diligently to make sure that we can establish what we say as a track record for Bichet. We're a new company. We believe that the margins will continue to improve. We work with cost-cutting. We work on right-sizing factories. We look at our cost or spending on OPEX and decide if we need it in the current quarter, if we can push it out a quarter. So we're quite diligent here. Laurie, do you have any comments you'd like to make?
spk01: No, I think that pretty much covered it.
spk05: Yeah, I'm trying to figure out where. Yeah, go ahead.
spk00: Sorry, if I may add, so if you look at the book-to-bill we disclosed, the high incremental margin down is partially related to a negative product mix in that the semiconductors, we assume the semiconductors will be going down further in Q4 than the passives. So that drives the margins down and increases the the incremental negative margin.
spk05: OK, is that true for the MOSFET business as well? I know I saw the book the bill was was very low, but I know you you have a strong demand from auto customers. So the MOSFET business will be down again as well.
spk03: I would say sideways, Matt. The automotive polls, the schedule agreements we see, continue to represent the demand. We were in allocation with Automos for that product. We've come off of allocation for Automos in the third quarter, and now we're engaging customers and distributors, which we couldn't currently support anymore. with our capacities so we're working to engage more customers to not say automotive products for MOSFETs are down but to actually broaden our customer base and be able to support more MOSFETs as Peter said is one of those higher margin products but the inventory in the channel is high for semiconductors and we have opportunities through adding part numbers which would give us a greater play for the auto MOS
spk05: Okay, thank you.
spk04: Thank you. One moment for questions. And our next question comes from Joshua Bulkhalter with TD Cowan. You may proceed.
spk06: Hi, everyone. Sam again. I just wanted to follow up on a distribution comment from earlier. I know your visibility is never 20-20, but could you give us an update on how much work there is to do in restocking the channel with new and old products? To target levels, if you have any, given that inventory is 24 weeks now versus, I think, 21 weeks last quarter.
spk03: Yeah, there is quite a bit of work to do. We have 16 divisions in business units. And at this point, four of them have had meetings with the distributors in the regions. There's meetings going on this week now in Europe. for one of the divisions so uh we are roughly a third maybe maybe 30 of what we want to achieve here with the distributors it's a true re-engagement we are showing the distributors a new vichay so we've got quite a bit of work here yet to do which is going to span into the early part of 2024. got it thank you that's all i had okay thanks
spk04: Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Joel Smekow for any closing remarks.
spk03: Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for joining our call today. At Vishay, we remain committed to making the necessary investments in capacity, customer-facing resources, and our innovation to make sure Vishay is ready to take full advantage of the next phase of market growth. For the megatrends we talk about, e-mobility, sustainability, and connectivity. We're moving forward with speed and conviction across the organization. I look forward to talking to you again in early February when we report our fourth quarter results. Thank you very much. Thank you.
spk04: This concludes today's conference call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
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