Yuval Wasserman
Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open
Thank you, Annie. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us for our second quarter conference call. The second quarter of 2015 demonstrated the strength of AEIS business model. Results reached the high-end of our expectations and once again precision power products grew significant non-GAAP profitability in cash generation. Looking at the overall mix of revenue semiconductors trended with the served market slightly lower than recent record levels, while continuing to contribute significantly to total revenue and profitability. Record high service revenue and a sequential increase in our other precision for application, which going forward, we will be categorizing as industrial power all add in as well. As expect, without decision to pursue strategic alternative for the inverter business, inverter revenue declined this quarter. In total revenues for the quarter were $137 million and non-GAAP earnings per share were $0.43. This outperformance grew strong margins in $28 million of cash generation in the quarter. We ended the quarter with a healthy cash position of $183 million. Key to achieving our strategic plan is growing our presence in precision power applications in both our core applications and new verticals as we aim at increasing our total available market. We look at achieving these goals by continuously winning new applications. In the second quarter, we again added to our track record of winning at significant designs with our customers. Important wins in semiconductor applications included the growing etch in memory areas, specifically DRAM and NAND applications. We achieved these wins with our latest RF platforms including our advanced RF pulsing solutions, which clearly position us in the market for advanced application. The increase in power content used an advanced plasma processing wafer FAB equipment should drive additional acceleration. One of our mandates in Solvix hard coating product line has been to expand a distribution of these products, both geographically and vertically. Historically this business was based almost exclusively in Europe. This quarter we were awarded some important view design wins in North America and Korea, which expanded our served available market. With a interaction of U.S. specific sold these products we’re now penetrating and gaining traction in U.S. hard coating space. Another important area in our strategy where we are winning new designs is large area spluttering. Our new bipolar DC and pulse DC technologies are enabling our customers to provide better control, improved film properties and productivity in applications such as architectural glass, flat panel display and solar cells manufacturing. Since the release in recent quarters these new products have seen quick market adoption displacing competitive offers. In high voltage, we won a number of designs and secured order for applications that we are targeting for the last six to nine months in areas including mass spectrometry, industrial x-ray, analytical instruments, lasers, and defense. This progress could translate into some sizeable incremental revenue in the future for our high voltage business. Now let me turn to our quarterly results. The quarter's strong performance was again a testament to our product mix. Similar to most semiconductor capital equipment suppliers we had a better than expected quarter as demand remained beyond record levels industry wide. While the sales for semiconductor application's been slightly off of the recent highs, their predicted digestion heading into the quarter did not materialize due to lack of visibility into end users' capital spending plans. Revenues remain very strong and over $17 million, down just 4% sequentially and in line with our served markets. We continue to benefit from pushout of EUV which has created a significant opportunity for AE in serving the multi-patterning application base in etch and deposition. This contributed to the late quarter of polling as OEMs raised to meet strong demand in etch and PECVD. By and large we believe this trend should continue into the third quarter as utilization rates decline and the investment cycle transitions from DRAM to the ramp new 3D NAND and 60 nanometers and 40 nanometers film set foundry capacity increases. Also this quarter AE was named The Top Process Power Provider in one of the world's best subsystems suppliers by VLSI Research 2015 Customer Satisfaction Survey. This recognition by our customers reaffirms the high performance, reliability and success of our products, operational excellence and our customer engagement model. We continue to be a supplier of choice for key semiconductor customers, able to adapt to their advanced technology needs and meet their demands. In our industrial precision power applications, revenues were up slightly. Increases in process power for flat panel displays along with large glass coater award were moderated by a slight decline in other industrial application. While historically, a large portion of our industrial revenues came from industrial revenue is came from the EMEA, this quarter was where important wins tied to North America and Korean market where we are gaining more traction. Additionally, during our Analyst Day we’re laid out our go-to-market strategy to move into industrial markets through our hybrid sales approach. This quarter, we saw the results of our collaboration, but large industrial partners as we extent our global reach by offering AE power products through their worldwide channels. Already we have seen our first sizeable orders as a result of these engagements. Our service revenue this quarter was driven by share gains and volume increases in precision power services and a sizable inverter upgrade project award. Semi-fab utilization rates remained a primary driver of our service revenue, but we are also seeing more activity related to capital reuse and repurposing, upgrades and retrofits to newer generation products or what we described as value added sales. Share gains are being driven by both leading technology for newer generation products and lagging technology such as 200 millimeter wafers, MEMS and sensors, is the Internet of Things is becoming more pervasive. From a geographic perspective, we saw share gain in Precision Power Service ranging from the U.S. to Korea and Japan. As you know in late June, after a thorough strategic evaluation process, we announced our plans to wind down of our inverter business. We spend 6 months looking at a variety of strategic option including a potential sale, joint venture, partnership, spin-off, and licensing opportunities. In the end, we simply did not find and option that provided sufficient value in terms that were in the best interest of our shareholders and the company. Therefore, we made the decision to wind down the business through an orderly process allowing us to continue to fulfill orders through our existing inventory of products and to book orders so that we can convert raw materials on hand into finish goods for sale. I’m pleased to report that the wind down process has proceeded well in the first month. We remain on track to largely complete this process by year-end and we’ll update you as things progress. With this decision behind us, we’re now beginning to turn our full attention to our Precision Power business which we believe hold the great opportunity for AE in its advanced products. Our focus will remain on driving efficiency, while expanding our served application through both organic and inorganic means. In summary, half way through 2015 the semiconductor market has been a major driving force behind our strong financial performance on the top and bottom-lines and we expect that to continue in the third quarter as well. Our profitable business model and our powerful financial engine are positioning AE to stand out from its peers. Our recognized leadership in power conversion products along with our high rate of design wins across our markets is speaking volume to existing and potential customers. Entering the third quarter we believe it will be another third quarter for the semiconductor market. With the exception of inverters, most of our precision power applications should improve in the third quarter, leading to roughly flat revenue quarter-on-quarter. Finally, as the year progress we expect inverter revenues to continue to decline as we sale off our inventory and to wind down the business while continuing to lower our operating expenses. Our commitment to executing on our long-term plan to drive profitable growth, strong cash flow and EPS essential to our strategy of focusing solely on our precision power business. I would like to thank our customers, partners, shareholders and our valued employees for their support. Thank you for joining us and we look forward to seeing many of you in the upcoming quarter. I would now like to turn the call over to Tom.