Earnings Labs

First Solar, Inc. (FSLR)

Q2 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 4, 2015

$196.26

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to First Solar's Second Quarter 2015 Earnings Call. This call is being webcast live on the Investor section of the First Solar's website at firstsolar.com. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Steve Haymore from First Solar Investor Relations. Mr. Haymore, you may begin.

Steve Haymore - Investor Relations

Management

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, the company issued a press release announcing its financial results for the second quarter of 2015. A copy of the press release and the presentation are available on the Investor section of First Solar's website at firstsolar.com. With me today are Jim Hughes, Chief Executive Officer; and Mark Widmar, Chief Financial Officer. Jim will provide a business and technology update, then Mark will discuss our second quarter financial results in detail and provide guidance for 2015. We will then open up the call for questions. Most of the financial numbers reported and discussed on today's call are based on U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Please note this call will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations. We encourage you to review the Safe Harbor statements contained in the press release and the slides published today for a more complete description. It is now my pleasure to introduce Jim Hughes, Chief Executive Officer. Jim? James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, Steve. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2015 earnings call. This past quarter was marked with great execution across multiple aspects of our business, from the successful launch of 8point3 Energy Partners to the achievement of a new technology milestone. And with strong financial results for the quarter, I am very pleased with the progress we are making. I want to recognize the tremendous efforts of the entire First Solar team to achieve these results. Turning to slide 4, I will discuss in more detail the benefits of the newly formed 8point3 Energy Partners, which we launched in conjunction with SunPower. The creation of this YieldCo…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from Ben Kallo with Robert W. Baird. Ben J. Kallo - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. (Broker): Hi, guys. Congrats on the quarter and the guidance. First, can you talk about your high-level thoughts looking ahead for 2016 and then especially 2017 as there's a lot of concern around there out in the investment community. And then also tying that in, could you just talk about your efficiency gains during the quarter and for the rest of the year, and how that positions you versus your Chinese competitors from a cost perspective, because there's also this perception that you're losing your cost advantage? Thanks. James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So, first, let's talk a bit about what we see going into 2016 and 2017. As I said my comments, we're rapidly approaching a point where we don't have a lot to sell in 2016. That doesn't mean we lose the opportunity to create value. What we've found over the course of 2015 is that, as we get into a fully-allocated position, we begin to identify opportunities to move volume around, move projects around, change timing and optimize the value creation out of the full production capability of the fleet. So 2016, I think, as we roll through the next couple of quarters, we'll book the remainder of the year and then we'll spend a lot of the following year optimizing the deliveries and optimizing the timing of our projects. The final resolution of ITC and specifically the commence construction language for ITC could throw some curveballs at the industry and cause everybody to re-look at timing of projects and timing of deliveries, but we'll just deal with those issues as they play out in Washington, D.C. As for 2017,…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Paul Coster with JPMorgan.

Paul Coster - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Two questions. Maybe the first one is for Jim, and that is with this quite amazing energy efficiency roadmap that you seem to be executing against, how do you actually price projects with delivery in 2017 or 2018? Do you do so with the future vector efficiency in mind? Or is it some kind of compromise between today and that future state? And the question for Mark is, the yields have spiked in the YieldCo space and I'm just wondering what, if anything, this does to your 12% to 15% growth commitment for 8point3 and what, if anything, you have by way of sort of wiggle room? Thank you. James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. On the future efficiency of the product, we have a very, very involved and sophisticated management process whereby we continuously evaluate the technology roadmap on a multifunctional, cross-functional basis within the organization. We make decisions against a degree of competence and statistical analysis that allows us to decide what we're willing to commit on a forward basis further out in time. Obviously, within that, you're going to use a greater degree of conservatism versus your roadmap the further out in time you are. But we are continuously applying in the marketplace our view of the roadmap. And we do so through extremely rigorous processes and only commit technology to the promise that we're willing to make in the marketplace once we feel like we have a high degree of confidence that we have moved from any sort of R&D type of circumstance to where it is simply a matter of executing on the production side. And that's essentially the methodology that we apply. Mark R. Widmar - Chief Financial & Accounting Officer: On the discussion around what's happening with yields and…

Paul Coster - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

At the moment, no deviation from the 12% to 15% commitment? Mark R. Widmar - Chief Financial & Accounting Officer: Not at this point in time.

Paul Coster - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · JPMorgan.

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Vishal Shah with Deutsche Bank.

Vishal B. Shah - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank.

Yeah, hi. Can you hear me? James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Yes.

Vishal B. Shah - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. So, Jim, I guess when you think about the efficiency and the cost roadmap, what kind of pricing environment do you need in order to justify the YieldCo economics in 2017 in the U.S.? And also, as you think about international markets such as India, has your strategy changed around projects in those markets? Are you looking to acquire projects or develop projects, hold them on balance sheet and potentially drop down into a YieldCo? Thank you. James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So first, in terms of the forward pricing environment, we generally don't comment on that in these calls. So I'll kind of leave that for now. In terms of what we're looking at in India, we're continuously evaluating the markets in which we operate, and we're continuously and aggressively evaluating the capital markets as they relate to that specific market. Obviously, with a lot of the focus and attention on the TerraForm global offering, there's been lots of discussion about YieldCos being applicable to international markets. I think Mark and I have taken and the entire First Solar team, we've taken a fairly conservative and cautious wait-and-see approach. We think that it is entirely possible that over time you will see yields type vehicles developed that may relate to one or more markets outside of the United States. I think it is a product and an offering that will take investors a while to digest and understand, and I do think there are very real risks inherent in those products that will need a lot of thought and analysis as we move forward. So we don't have any immediate plans to do anything like that. We're taking fairly traditional approaches to the monetization of assets that we're creating in markets like India. But we also continuously look at new developments in the capital markets and the viewpoint and appetites that investors have for various things, and we will keep evaluating those things as we move forward.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Sven Eenmaa with Stifel. Sven Eenmaa - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc.: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to ask about reports in the media regarding the company's targets on getting full system costs down to below a $1 a watt on a fully installed basis in Western U.S., where do you stand in the cost reduction curve currently? And what are the kind of key levers you have here, let's say, over the next 12 months to 18 months? James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So the target of getting down to a $1 per watt is a target that we announced a long time ago in one of our Analyst Day meetings and we continue to make good progress. We, as of the last year-and-a-half or so, have not really broken down the details of that as we believe that it's competitive information. But we continue to make good progress. And you will hit that target at different times in different markets. Each market has its own cost structure, its own cost of labor, its own specific requirements in terms of site conditions, and even within markets you have a high degree of variability. So safe to say there are certain places in the world today that you can build for – something close to or even slightly below a $1 per watt. There are other parts of the world where it is substantially higher than that. So it's not a universal, simple, single answer, but we continue, as you have seen on the module side, make tremendous progress and we've made exciting and significant progress on the balance of system side, and we continue to have a relentless, almost religious focus on cost reduction as sort of core to the company's success.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We move next to Patrick Jobin with Credit Suisse. Patrick S. Jobin - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Two quick questions. So first, just trying to reconcile running at 85% utilization, given the efficiency improvements, $0.40 per watt cost structure, I guess, with lead line and the commentary about being sold out, which is a little bit of volume for 2016. What would be a realistic upgrade timeframe and when we see that lead line throughout the rest of the fleet and utilization? And then just last question, on TetraSun if there's any update there. Thanks. Mark R. Widmar - Chief Financial & Accounting Officer: Yeah, I will take the first one and then Jim can do the TetraSun. So first off, Patrick, to make sure the comment was made during the call, if you caught it is that we envision that we will be running the entire fleet at the current lead line efficiency by the end of the year. So the 16.2% in the lead line, you would expect the entire fleet as we exit the year to be at 16.2% from that perspective. The comments around the utilization and the sold-out in the $0.40, to try to put that all in perspective, we effectively are running adjusted for downtime to realize upgrades that we need to do to drive those efficiency improvements. We effectively are running full outright now. We have no real available capacity. We have some discretionary capacity as it relates to the timing of doing the upgrade, and that's why you will see not this year, we're going to continue to roll out for the fleet, the lead line efficiency across the entire fleet, but as we enter into 2016, we're making some informed decisions…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Julien Dumoulin-Smith with UBS.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Hi. Good afternoon. James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Good afternoon.

Julien Dumoulin-Smith - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

So a question here just around 8point3 and the positioning of your development activities. Obviously, very successful abroad in more EM oriented countries or perhaps more specifically non CdTe (47:50) oriented countries. Can you talk about how you think about development and perhaps optimizing between going towards attractive EM opportunities versus pursuing development opportunities in developed markets which could be eligible for 8point3? James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: I don't really think it's an either/or. Given the balance sheet that the company has, as long as the activities are well diversified and at appropriate risk levels, we really aren't particularly constrained in terms of our ability to pursue development activities. And the resources to pursue emerging market activities or activities outside of the U.S. versus the resources that pursue U.S. activities, they are really not common resources. There's a little bit of overlap on the engineering side, but by and large, those are independent skill sets and independently staffed teams and organizations. We have a fairly regional structure on the development side. We further committed to a regional focus with the reorganization and the appointment of Georges as the U.S. President and Joe as the International President. So it doesn't really present us with an either/or. We're going to pursue development in both the U.S., other OECD countries, as well as emerging market countries based upon the market specifics, the ability to create value out of the development process, the availability of a liquid market to monetize those activities on the backend, and it's not – we don't – really have not found ourselves in a position where we have had to think about or talk about an either/or in terms of evaluating those opportunities.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Krish Sankar with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Krish Sankar - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. I had two of them. One is if I look at your 16.7 gigawatt booking opportunity, it looks like it's about 3 gigawatts to 4 gigawatts of mid to late stage. Is there a way you can quantify how many have COD dates before and after 2016? And the follow-up would be given your global footprint, I'm wondering, how has FX impacted your numbers? James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: So what was the last question again?

Krish Sankar - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

FX – impact of FX on your projects. James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Okay. So first, in terms of the 16.7 gigawatt, we don't provide specifics, but generally, I can tell you that when you consider where we sit with respect to our production in 2016, there's going to be a significant volume of that that is post-2016 because we don't have a lot with which to chase opportunities in terms of available volumes, and that's probably all the detail that we can provide on that other than the numbers that are in the release. In terms of FX, the near-term specific FX exposures we try to identify and hedge, and we don't see a great deal of volatility. I think we have a belief that there is some competitiveness elements that flow through FX. We have probably a slightly more dollarized supply chain than some of our competitors. But I tend to take a reversion to the mean approach to that, and we don't spend a lot of focus on those types of issues. Mark, any? Mark R. Widmar - Chief Financial & Accounting Officer: No. I think that's right. We have seen a little bit of FX benefit on Malaysian ringgit, it hasn't been significant, but to Jim's point, largely where we hedge most of our exposure, so we haven't really seen a net benefit or a net adverse impact for FX so far this year.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We move next to Brian Lee with Goldman Sachs. Brian K. Lee - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. Just a couple of policy related ones. First, if you could share maybe your latest visibility into the proceedings around the 50% RPS proposal in California and what you think the timing for progress on that might be. And then secondly, Jim, you alluded to it earlier in the call, but with respect to the 30% ITC, if you could share any thoughts around the chances for a Safe Harbor provision to be implemented, to the extent that you have any visibility into the proceedings in DC? Thank you. James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Sure. I think I have less visibility on California and the 50% RPS. I mean, I think there's a tremendous amount of political will to get it done. I think that at that level, you are beginning to push the horizon to the point that there are practical issues associated with that level of penetration into the grid. They're not unsolvable. I just think it requires thoughtful analysis and dialogue, and I think that the resource planning process combined with the political process are kind of tied up in trying to figure those types of things out. And I – to be honest, I don't spend a ton of my time focused on it. We certainly have people within the organization that do, but I wouldn't feel comfortable providing a lot of commentary. On the ITC, there has been a lot of activity and a lot of discussion in Washington. As everybody knows, the fact that we are now in the heat of the 2015 presidential race kind of leaves us at a difficult time in…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. We take Edwin Mok with Needham & Company next. Arthur Su - Needham & Co., LLC: Hi, guys. This is Arthur filling in for Edwin Mok. Just a real quick question. As you guys start to execute on your efficiency roadmap and achieve a higher level of efficiency, do you see yourself potentially entering the small commercial or residential market space? Thanks. James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: I think our answer to that will be the same as it has been historically, which is if we have meaningful customers that are interested in cooperating with us and pursuing that market, we will be more than happy to work with those customers. We're not going to go directly chase those customers ourselves. That has never been our business model or our expertise. Our deal sizes tend to be much larger than that. Certainly, we have a technology that's going to be increasingly applicable, and we do have aggregators of demand that have spoken to us about those markets, and I think you will see us move some volumes into those markets, but that will be more in terms of module supply and less in terms of as a developer.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today's question-and-answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference back to our presenters for any additional or closing remarks. James Alton Hughes - Chief Executive Officer & Director: Thanks, guys, for the time. We feel like it was a good quarter and we have a very attractive and interesting future ahead, and so we'll talk to you all next quarter.