YJ Kim
Analyst · ROTH Capital. Your line is now open
Thank you, Bruce, and good afternoon to everyone on our Q1 2018 conference call. We got the year off to a good start in the first quarter of 2018. We made operational progress across our three business lines and created a solid foundation for long-term growth. Revenue of $165.8 million in Q1 exceeded the high-end of the guidance range, driven by increased demand for our OLED display drivers. Jonathan will provide more details regarding the new revenue recognition standard adapted in this quarter, but the impact to Q1 revenue amount was not material. Gross profit margin was in line with the guidance range, despite higher vehicle prices and typical season weakness. Operating income and adjusted EBITDA, both showed double-digit percentage gains from a year ago. Here are the four takeaways from Q1. Number one, results in the power Standard Products business were impressive. Revenue grew nearly 10% year-over-year and gross profit margin hit on all time high, post MagnaChip IPO in 2011 and exceeded the corporate average for the first time. These financial results demonstrated the success of the portfolio optimization and engineering restructuring review that were launched more than two years ago. Number two, BCD and EEPROM technology continued to drive customer demand in our foundry business and accounted for approximately 40% of foundry revenue. The combination of analog-based BCD and E-squared technology is ideal for power management solutions and power ICs used in smartphones, IoT devices and USB-C applications. Number three, in display, we took decisive steps through a portfolio optimization initiative to transform the underperforming non-OLED portion of the display business unit. LCD prices have been in a steady decline for some time. And in December 2017 alone, 32-inch LCD panel prices dropped by about 30% according to market observers. We said on our Q4 earnings call, that we would not actively pursue on attractive LCD opportunities, which is exactly what we did in Q1 with about $11 million worth of LCD business. We also said on the Q4 call that this strategy will temporarily affect revenue and fab utilization in Q1 2018, but that was consistent with our strategy of improving product mix and MagnaChip’s profitability over the long run. All that still holds true. We also transferred in Q1, $4.4 million worth of products from the non-OLED display business to the foundry as part of ongoing portfolio optimization effort to realign business processes and streamline the organization structure. The product transfers have technical and business characteristics more closely aligned with the foundry business. When all is said and done, the non-OLED display business remaining in our Standard Products Group is expected to be about $15 million per quarter this year as compared to about $30 million per quarter last year. The good news for MagnaChip is that the growth we anticipate in our higher margin OLED business will more than offset the decline in revenue from the non-OLED display business line. We are cultivating the non-OLED portion of the display business that is aimed at higher margin opportunities such as automotive and we will redirect display-related product development beyond OLED smartphones in order to gain market share in the overall display market. Number four, this brings us to the final takeaway in Q1, the recovery in our OLED business. It was a long time incoming, but our OLED business regained momentum in Q1 and set the stage for robust revenue growth in 2018. Based on our strong and growing design pipeline and current visibility, we now anticipate that OLED revenue will far surpass our previously stated revenue targets in 2018. As a reminder, we stated on our Q4 earnings call that OLED revenue in Q1 2018 have the potential to increase sequentially by more than 75% and expressed confidence that OLED revenue was on track to exceed 50% growth in 2018 as compared to 2017 or clearly exceed $100 million for the full year. In fact, the results were significantly better than expected. Demand continued to strengthen throughout Q1. OLED revenue in Q1 increased 141% sequentially and 112% year-over-year. OLED revenue in Q1 was $34.3 million and represented 59% of the total display business. That compared on the adjusted basis to $14.3 million in Q4, 2017 or 32% of the display business and $16.2 million in Q1 2017 or 38% of the display business. The OLED momentum from Q1 has carried over so far into Q2. Based on current customer demand, our current view is that OLED revenue has the potential to increase about 50% in Q2 from Q1 level. And if the current trends hold, OLED revenue in 2018 has the potential to approach the results in our 2016 breakout year when OLED accounted for approximately $160 million in revenue. The recovery in our OLED business in Q1 and the strengths we continue to see so far in Q2, did not develop overnight. Instead, the seeds of our OLED recovery were planted in 2017 when we launched several new OLED display drivers that over time went from sampling to designing to smartphone product introductions that began modestly in Q4 2017. The pace of new China smartphone launches picked up in Q1 and the momentum is continuing into Q2. While there is much debate about the current state of the China smartphone market, MagnaChip is seeing definite pockets of strengths, especially in rigid OLED display drivers for mid range and premium smartphones, on area where we have been positioned well. TSMC which has a broad global customer base and a real-time pulse on the market, said on its recent earnings call that the high-end of the smartphone market is, and I quote here “a little bit soft” but added -- and I quote here again, “We do see China as a market start to pick up in the smartphone.” The Company then added that the China smartphone market is picking up slowly. The last comment from TSMC about the pace of the recovery in the China smartphone market, may be true overall, but we have a different story to tell. Our slice of the business in the China smartphone market suggests the pickup, at least for MagnaChip, is resuming at a different speed, at least at this time. Are there of this scenario? Of course. Some smartphone models could be delayed, others may disappoint and the economy and trade tensions are wild cards. These factors are beyond our control, but we are focused like a laser beam on what we can control. For example, we have expanded the OLED product portfolio. So, we don’t rely on the success of one or two products as we did in 2016. What’s more? We are designing to more than two dozen latest OLED smartphones participating in multiple smartphone market segments, and broaden our end-customer footprint. We have also added a second Korean OLED panel maker as a customer and signed on a second external 12-inch foundry source to ensure we meet high-volume requirements of customers. Let me expand upon a few of these points. In 2016, we mainly had two OLED display drivers including a legacy version. We hit a home run with the rigid 55-nanometer display drive IC, when just two China smartphone makers accounted for approximately 100 million in revenue. Fast forward to 2018. More than 10 smartphone makers have awarded MagnaChip with 28 OLED design wins over the past three quarters including 10 design wins in Q1. And we continue to win design wins. We typically don’t call out names of smartphone makers using our OLED drivers but we can say that our drivers were used in three OLED smartphones launched in Q4 2017, another four in Q1 and we anticipate that about 10 more will hit the market in Q2. Let’s look out our current mobile OLED product portfolio. It now consists of six display drive ICs, three 40-nanometer rigid bezel-less drivers, two 55-nanometer flexible bezel-less drivers, and one mature 110 rigid OLED driver used by a Korean global smartphone maker for multiple entry level, high volume smartphones. Several of our OLED drivers enable smartphones with ultrahigh-end features, so that mid-range to high-end prices in China, elsewhere in Asia and Europe and in emerging markets. Five of our OLED drivers are currently in volume production and the sixth, which we just introduced, is expected to be in production later this year. Just a word about the new driver we sampled. It’s a new third generation 40-nanometer, rigid bezel-less OLED display driver that enables 21 by 9 screen aspect ratio and full HD plus, plus resolution. It already has one designing at a leading smartphone maker for a mainstream device targeted for launch in the second half of 2018. The smartphone market with its annual product cycles requires non-stop product innovation. So, we have accelerated the pace of our OLED driver development. Already in the works is a 28-nanometer next generation OLED driver. We expect our 28-nanometer DDIC will have the industry’s lowest power and smaller die size with the utmost OLED display capabilities. This will make it a technically compelling fit for the high-end smartphone market. The good news is that we already ticked out a 28-nanometer test chip and we expect to hit the market with the product by end of this year or early in 2019. And we’re already in the early stages of designing of our own product. A final word about profit margin on OLED display drivers. Our OLED business has consistently generated gross profit margin that topped our corporate average and that again was a case in Q1. We shipped mostly rigid drivers in Q1, but we expect that higher margin flexible OLED drivers will begin to ship in higher volumes later this year. Our foundry, power and remaining non-OLED display business all are critical to MagnaChip’s success, because they have grown steadily over the past three years. They also share synergies that improve our product design efficiency and manufacturing know-how and expose us to a broad range of technologies, customers, applications and geographic markets. Here is a short recap for each. Fab utilization hovered around high 80% range, reflecting seasonal weakness, although we see modest improvement going forward. Aside from focusing on PMIC-related applications, our foundry business increasingly focused on new market segments, including automotive and power discrete. In Q1, we introduced Automotive-Grade 0.18 micron BCD process technology with up to 100 volt, which offers automotive-grade reliability for DC to DC converters, LED drivers, motor drives, battery chargers and PMICs using automotive electronics. Turning now to the power products business. The progress we’ve made on the product front is equally as impressive as the improved financial results in that business. Premium products accounted once again for over 40% of power revenue in the quarter and we continue to develop new premium products. For example, we are converting existing products to new generation super junction, medium voltage MOSFET and IGBT. While at the same time we are reducing the contribution level of low margin products. New generation MOSETs were strong in the TV market, while IGBT and medium voltage MOSFETs were especially strong in China industrial power markets. Super junction product showed healthy demand from the industrial and lightning markets. Power is becoming an increasingly important part of our business and the industry. Let me make some final comments about our non-OLED portion of the display business. Back in our Q3 earnings call, we identified the low-margin portion of our LCD products business as a headwind because portions of it often fell short of our internal profit objectives. In some ways, this business resembled our power business of a few years ago, which is why we now are actively pursuing a similar portfolio optimization strategy in the non-OLED display business. Our reengineering of the non-OLED display business will take time, but we’ve taken major steps in Q1 to put it on the path to improved revenue and profitability. One note about where display portfolio optimization effort is headed. We have a broad pallet of technologies and good understanding of system design. So, we plan to use a platform approach to product development and design a new and more competitive line of display drivers that share a common architecture for larger screens and automotive applications. We believe that over time, this approach has the potential to accelerate time to market, improve the product mix, and optimize the display business for higher revenue and improved profitability. With that, I’ll turn the call over to Jonathan. I’ll return afterwards to wrap up and provide our business outlook and financial guidance for the second quarter of 2018. Jonathan?