Earnings Labs

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. (ASX)

Q1 2014 Earnings Call· Fri, Apr 25, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome. And thank you for standing by. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Questions can be raise at the end of the presentation. (Operator Instructions) Today’s call is being recorded and if you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. And now I'll turn the meeting over to your host, Mr. Joseph Tung. Sir, you may begin.

Joseph Tung

Management

Thank you. Good morning and good evening, everyone. Thank you for attending ASE First Quarter 2014 Earnings Release Conference Call. Please turn to page one. Here on page one is the Safe Harbor notice. I would like to remind everyone on this call that the presentation that follows may contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to high degrees of risks and our actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements. As anticipated, we saw a typical seasonal Q1. For the most part smart devices which have driven electronic industry took their customary breather. However, we did see some small upside orders related to mobile devices going into China. This helped nudge our revenue slightly ahead of where we had expected them to end up. Our SiP technology-related products saw seasonal softness as expected. During Q1, we saw continued progress in our dealings with the Gaoxiong city government to reopen the nickel plating pumping line in our K7 factory. Most recently today, we have been given approval to start trial run. This is a notable step forward towards resumption of production. However, final approval for the full resumption of work is still in process. This trial run should take about a week or two to get started. Even though full operations have not been re-commissioned, we have mitigated much of the impact to our customers. Let’s get into the detail for the first quarter. Page two, quarter-over-quarter consolidated P&L. Generally, we believe comparing our seasonally down first quarter with the previous fourth quarter isn’t particularly meaningful. So we will keep these comments really brief. On a fully consolidated basis, the company delivered EPS for the first quarter of NT$0.44 versus NT$0.66 in Q4. In Q1 on a consolidated basis, we saw our IC packaging, test and EMS businesses…

Operator

Operator

I'm here, I'm here. Hello?

Joseph Tung

Management

Yes.

Unidentified Participant

Management

Yeah.

Joseph Tung

Management

We're opening the floor to questions.

Operator

Operator

Okay. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Szeho Ng. Sir, your line is open. You may now ask your questions.

Szeho Ng - BNP Paribas

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. Good evening, gentlemen. First question regarding your testing CapEx in Q1. You expect only NT$27 million, but somehow you had 104 testers during the quarter? Just want to know, how the math work out?

Joseph Tung

Management

The testers that we add all 80, sometimes there are rack and stacks, sometimes there are various types of testers.

Szeho Ng - BNP Paribas

Analyst

But if I work it out semester, average price per tester is actually quite low? Is it some of them are on consignment basis or leasing terms?

Joseph Tung

Management

Yeah. Some of them are consigned, but again, the testers that we had all ATE.

Szeho Ng - BNP Paribas

Analyst

Okay. All right. And therefore the fan-out business? Is it possible for you to quantify the revenue contribution for the time being and how you could kept that part of business going forward?

Joseph Tung

Management

Did you say fan-out?

Szeho Ng - BNP Paribas

Analyst

Yes. fan-out, yeah.

Joseph Tung

Management

So far we don't have any meaningful numbers coming out of fan-out business and I think, yeah, we're in the process of developing of different type of technology or solutions. And we do not expect this two have a meaningful number maybe two quarters down the road.

Szeho Ng - BNP Paribas

Analyst

Okay. And then you are capable on both 8-inch and 12-inch?

Joseph Tung

Management

Right now the capacity we have is mostly 8-inch.

Szeho Ng - BNP Paribas

Analyst

Okay. All right. But next year would you be ready for 12-inch?

Joseph Tung

Management

We're certainly developing that solutions and we will have the appropriate capacity installed.

Szeho Ng - BNP Paribas

Analyst

Okay. All right. Thank you very much and great quarter.

Joseph Tung

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And the next question comes from Tse-Yong Yao of HSBC. Sir, your line is open. You may now ask your question.

Tse-Yong Yao - HSBC

Analyst

Hi. Thanks. I want to -- I was hoping to get a little bit more color on the CapEx plan where you intend on spending it. I believe in the afternoon session that you mentioned around NT$700 million for SiP related wirebonding?

Joseph Tung

Management

So we said NT$700 to NT$750 for packaging, including some of the -- including for the advanced packaging and including bumping flip-chip, as well as SiP.

Tse-Yong Yao - HSBC

Analyst

And…

Joseph Tung

Management

We now have another $100 million to $150 million for test and the rest for the substrate EMS.

Tse-Yong Yao - HSBC

Analyst

Okay. So the $700 million, could we get a sense for how much, how that’s broken down between wirebond and advanced packaging?

Joseph Tung

Management

I think bulk of it will be advanced packaging. I think wirebonding will be relatively small portion of it.

Tse-Yong Yao - HSBC

Analyst

Advanced packaging specifically flip-chip prices…

Joseph Tung

Management

In bumping and also SiP.

Tse-Yong Yao - HSBC

Analyst

Okay.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) As of right now sir, there are no more questions raised. There is one from Gokul Hariharan of JPMC. Sir your line is open. You may now ask your question.

Gokul Hariharan - JPMC

Analyst

Hi, congrats on the good quarter and thanks for taking my question. Just wanted to ask about first of all on the further progress that you have seen in the SiP business. Have you broadened out into new product categories in addition to the sensor business that you won last year. Could we talk about how the SiP business is panning out, given that I think in the one call you mentioned that it could have close to 20% of revenues coming from this product category. Can you talk about that a bit and I have a follow-up question after that?

Joseph Tung

Management

I think, what we have been forecasted now for second half is mostly the existing products that we are building for customers. Although we are having engagement on some other products as well but we will -- I think we will take another quarter or so before we can have more -- better visibility on these projects.

Gokul Hariharan - JPMC

Analyst

Okay. Thank you. Second question I had is some of your competitors seem to be building a lot of wafer level packaging capacity especially the one from Singapore seems to be building a lot of wafer level packaging capacity over the last one and a half years. And your approach seems to be a bit different. Could you talk about what is happening here and how you think the market is going to evolve? And those would probably bring in -- I think you did comment about the foundry competition potentially coming in the next couple of years, could you probably bring in that perspective as well as how that dictates your investment decisions into allocating CapEx into areas like SiP rather than say wafer level packaging.

Joseph Tung

Management

Well, of course, we will look at all different solutions and look at how the market is developing. And we will prepare the necessary technology as well as the capacity as we go along. In terms of wafer level packaging, I think, we do a lot of that already. And I think -- but in terms of technology, I think the -- I will believe the trend is really going through SiP and some of the so called wafer level packaging will also be used on those different devices. And it will be a part of the overall solution that we provide to our customers. I think, all in all, I think the strategy here is really to look at -- continue to look at the market development and prepare for the technology as well as capacity as we stay fit.

Gokul Hariharan - JPMC

Analyst

Okay. Understood, understood. And yeah, thank you. Thank you for taking my question.

Joseph Tung

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

As of right now sir, there are no more questions raised.

Joseph Tung

Management

Okay. We give everybody another 30 seconds.

Operator

Operator

Okay. (Operator Instructions)

Joseph Tung

Management

Okay. If there is no more questions then we wrap up the session. I think we had a better than expected first quarter, particularly on the overall IC at ATM business. And also on the EMS side, the drop -- the seasonal drop is smaller than what we’re expecting. Going into second quarter and also into the second half of the year, we believe that we will continue to see sequential growth on a monthly and on quarterly basis, both on the organic part of the business as well as winning more or expanding our SiP business going forward. And with this year, we remain optimistic at this point and we will continue to focus our effort on not only building business but also continue to -- from all aspects to improve our margins. Thank you very much for today and we’ll see you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.

Joseph Tung

Management

Thank you.