Melexis Nv Ieper

Good day and welcome to today's Melexis first quarter 2024 results conference call. Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. You may register for your questions at any time by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. At this time, I'd like to hand the call over to Mr. Marc Biron, CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Dear audience, Thank you for joining the Melexis first quarter 2024 earnings call. I will share with you the highlight of the past quarter, after which our CFO, Karen Van Grisven, will talk you through the financials. In the first quarter of 24, sales came out at 242 million euro. Despite the inventory correction that we observed in some product line in the past few quarters, sales were up six percent compared to the first quarter of 23. Those results confirm that our product portfolio gives us a very good immunity against any type of car that are preferred by the end customer. We are successful in comfort and safety applications as well as for the different types of powertrain. Through our world premiere innovations, we have a leadership position in our core market, automotive. But we are also investing in emerging markets beyond automotive like robotic, alternative mobility, and health. As an example, in Q1, we have kicked off development of two products for robotic applications. In the first quarter, we have launched our game-changing Trifibion technology, which revolutionized thermal management in electric vehicles. It's an innovative high-pressure sensor which is compatible with a harsh environment. In Q1, we have also revealed Induxys, an inductive switch to be used in safety applications. It can be used, for example, in seat belt buckle or door latch. Our design win in Q1 confirmed the success of our product strategy. Out of the top five design wins, two are related to thermal management, one is related to inverter applications for EV, one for lighting, and one for e-steering applications. Note that two of the top five design wins are for Chinese market. Still in Q1, we have been working on the diversification and localization of our supply chain to meet the future market expectation and to stay relevant independently of the geopolitical constraint. We have also set up a plan to optimize the cost of our product through different initiatives. I now give the floor to our CFO, Karen Van Grisven, who will share some financial insights.

So thank you, Mark. So hello, everybody. A bit more on the financials. So Mark already mentioned we had nearly 242 million euro sales in the first quarter, an increase of 6% compared to the same quarter a year ago. The gross result was 106.1 million euro, or 44.2% of sales, an increase of 4% compared to the same quarter of last year. and a decrease of 4% compared to the previous quarter. R&D expenses were 11.1% of sales, G&A was at 4.8% of sales, and selling was at 1.9% of sales. The operating result was 63.7 million euro, or 26.4% of sales, an increase of 4% compared to the same quarter of last year, and an increase of 4% compared to the previous quarter. The net result was €52.9 million or €1.31 per share, an increase of 4% compared to €50.9 million or €1.26 per share in the first quarter of 2023, and an increase of 6% compared to the previous quarter. If we look forward, so the outlook, Manaxis expects sales in the second quarter of 2024 to be in the range of €242 to €247 million. For the full year, 2024, we expect sales to be around €1 billion, with a gross profit margin above 44%, and an operating margin above 25%. all taking into account a euro-US dollar exchange rate of 1.08. For the full year 2024, Manexis expects CapEx to be around 70 million euro. So I would like to now open the Q&A session, so operator, please go ahead.