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Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation (MX)

Q1 2019 Earnings Call· Tue, Apr 30, 2019

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to MagnaChip Semiconductor Corps First Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will be given at that time. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Bruce Entin, Head of Investor Relations. Sir you may begin.

Bruce Entin

Analyst

Thank you and thank you for joining us to discuss MagnaChip's financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019. The first quarter earnings release that we filed today after the stock market closed and other releases can be found on the company's Investor Relations Web site. The telephone replay of today's call will be available shortly after the completion of the call and the webcast will be archived on the Web site for one year access information is provided in the earnings press release. Joining me today are YJ Kim, MagnaChip's Chief Executive Officer and Jonathan Kim our Chief Financial Officer. YJ will discuss the company's recent operating performance and market outlook for our product categories. And Jonathan will provide an overview of Q1 results and provide financial guidance for Q2 2019. There will be a question-and-answer session following today's prepared remarks. During the course of this conference call, we may make forward-looking statements about MagnaChip's business outlook and expectations. Our forward-looking statements and all other statements that are not historical facts reflect our beliefs and predictions as of today and therefore are subject to risks and uncertainties as described in the Safe Harbor discussion found in our SEC filings. During the call, we will also discuss our non-GAAP financial measures. The non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles but are intended to illustrate an alternative measure of MagnaChip's operating performance that may be useful. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release available on our Web site under the Investor Relations tab at www.magnachip.com. I will now turn the call over to YJ Kim. YJ?

YJ Kim

Analyst

Welcome to everyone on the Q1 conference call. Revenue of $157.4 million in Q1 was down 5% from a year ago, but exceeded our guidance of $152 million to $155 million due to stronger customer demand for products from our standard products group. OLED DDICs and power scanner products both set all time revenue records for the first quarter of a year despite soft seasonal trends and a weak China's smartphone market. OLED DDIC revenue of $48.5 million increased 41.5% year-over-year and power standard product revenue of $42 million increased nearly 9%. Foundry revenue of $57.1 million declined 26% from Q1 a year ago, which was a disappointing, but was in line with guidance we provided. We pointed out on the Q4 earnings call in February that the foundry business will be under severe pressure in Q1 and would remain weak for the first half of 2019. That scenario is playing out as forecasted, but notably the foundry business is stabilizing around these levels and current market signals point to a gradual improvement in the second half of the year. The downdraft in foundry in Q1 was primarily due to inventory correction by customers stemming from softening global market conditions and macro economy uncertainties. General uncertainty about China, fears of a trade war and typical seasonality also contributed to the weakness. We also decided to be more selective about taking new foundry business in Q1 as a result of the strategic evaluation process of the foundry business and Fab 4 that was undertaken in February by the company. While the foundry business will remain weak in Q2, customer inventories are slowly being worked down, the China market appears to have leveled off and several new products from foundry customers are in early stage production. For now at least it seems…

Jonathan Kim

Analyst

Thank you YJ and welcome to everyone on the call. Let's do a brief recap of revenue by business segment and then discuss profitability metrics. Revenue of $157.4 million in Q1 declined 5.1% from $165.8 million in the same period a year ago due to a decline in foundry revenue offset in part by an increase in revenue from Standard Products. Foundry revenue of $57.1 million declined 26.3% from $77.4 million in Q1 a year ago due primarily to inventory correction by customers stemming from softening global market conditions and macroeconomic uncertainties. As mentioned previously, we also were more selective about new business as a result of the strategic evaluation of the foundry business and Fab 4. Revenue in the Standard Products Group was $100.3 million up 13.5% from $88.4 million in Q1 a year ago. This increase was primarily due to an increase in revenue related to our mobile OLED display driver ICs due to the introduction of new OLEDs smartphones by Chinese and Korean manufacturers and higher demand for premium power products such as high-end MOSFETs and IGBTs primarily for TV and industrial applications. This increase was offset in part by a strategic reduction of our lower margin LCD business. The LCD business totaled $9.7 million in Q1, a decline of 37% from Q1 a year ago and down 42.9% from Q4 2018. Turning now to profitability metrics. Total gross profit in Q1 was $22.7 million down 49.1% from $44.6 million in Q1 a year ago. Gross margin was 14.4% in Q1 compared to gross margin of 26.9% in Q1 a year ago. Gross margin in Q1 was within the guidance range of 14% to 16%. A significant drop in fab utilization affected gross margin for both the foundry services group and Standard Products Group. Total fab utilization…

Bruce Entin

Analyst

Thank you, Jonathan. So Victor this concludes our prepared remarks. We would now like to open the call for questions.

Operator

Operator

Yes sir. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Suji Desilva from ROTH Capital. You may begin.

Suji Desilva

Analyst

Hi, YJ. Hi, Jon. Congratulations on the recovery. You guys are targeting here and stabilization for foundry. So on the OLED side, you have a bunch of things going on here but I'm curious how the pipeline for 28-nanometer wins are shaping up and how that looks versus the current sort of win profile, will that expand your footprint and share or will it sustain the position you have and move it forward?

YJ Kim

Analyst

Hi, Suji. Thank you. So as you mentioned today, we have up to two OLED 28-nanometer design wins so far. One we did in Q1, another one just came in April. So, we continue to have progress and design wins. As you know we just sample that device a few months ago or a month ago. We expect the production to begin in second half of this year. And I think with that we'll see -- hope to see more design wins. What's critical about this 28-nanometer is what we said before this is most power efficient, our design has the lowest power in the industry, also it reduce the EMI by 20% which improves the quality and 28-nanometer is what you need to do ultra high definition on the smartphone and big application like AR, VR to foldable and things like that. So we are excited that we see a good platform that we have that's going to generate new design win going forward.

Suji Desilva

Analyst

Okay. And then, on your existing OLED driver position. Do you find that, how's the China smartphone inventory situation at this point after a few months of working down and is that impacting you, are you exposed to some of the new program that the newer phones that are seeing sort of initial ramps?

YJ Kim

Analyst

So obviously if you look at our Q1, we actually had a stronger than expected OLED sales. So what that translates to is that there are new smartphones, new models being launched. Then we said we had launched about eight or nine phones in Q1. So the momentum is there for still new phones and the 40-nanometer provides very good price point on the rigid platform. So I think we have that kind of a phenomenon.

Suji Desilva

Analyst

Okay. And then, on the [nano-LED] [ph] path that you've taken some action with the display business, is that current level just under 10 million, is that a sustainable level from here forward or is there another step down in that amount comprehended in your guidance?

YJ Kim

Analyst

For now, I think it's safe to or not safe -- I think it's good to assume that is around 10 million level for this year.

Suji Desilva

Analyst

Okay. And then one question on the foundry side, the utilization you gave us for the quarter what's given all the actions you're taking in this activity, you're experiencing the customers. What's the steady state utilization target that we can now think about versus what you might be under typical operating conditions or is that similar?

YJ Kim

Analyst

I think -- I don't think we can say exact number, but as we remarked said today that we see a gradual improvement throughout second half. So we hope to keep increasing the utilization.

Suji Desilva

Analyst

Okay. Fair enough. All right. Thanks guys.

YJ Kim

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Ari Shusterman. One moment.

Ari Shusterman

Analyst

Hey, YJ. Hey, Jonathan. Congrats on the good quarter. So, one just -- going to your foundry business, since you guys have stabilized this for -- I guess the most part. Do you think you are less likely to sell it as part of your strategic evaluation? And also there has recently been a rumor that SK Hynix is considering buying this business or considering bidding for it. Can you comment on that as well? Do you have any information?

YJ Kim

Analyst

Well, I think there's a couple of questions there. But look internally we continue to review our business and operation team improve our financial performance and the operational efficiencies and maximize shareholder value and this is why we are doing these strategic evaluation of foundry business. And I'm sure you understand I can't really comment on the speculation rumors, but our specialty 8-inch fab is a strategic asset and you'd expect that it tends to generate a fair amount of interest.

Ari Shusterman

Analyst

Okay. Yes. Thank you. And just transitioning over to China smartphone market. Do you guys see any sort of stabilization on that in the second half of 2019? Any update in the past few months in terms of orders and unit or anything like that? Thank you.

YJ Kim

Analyst

Could I understand your question? Are you saying second half, what's the outlook for the smartphone in China?

Ari Shusterman

Analyst

Correct.

YJ Kim

Analyst

Okay. Well, obviously we guide one quarter at a time as you know. And what we did say is that Q2, we are looking OLED DDIC to grow by 30%. We also said on overall year we feel good about revenue growing on the Standard Products Group and the OLED. So I will give more color when we go to the next earnings call on the second half.

Ari Shusterman

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

YJ Kim

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Atif Malik from Citi. You may begin.

Atif Malik

Analyst

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions and good job in a tough environment. YJ I have a question on the OLED smartphone market. There is some kind of speculation that the Chinese handset maker in particular one of them could be buying components in light of the U.S.-China tariff situation. Are you seeing any of that in your business that there is a pull forward of some component demand for some handset makers in China.

YJ Kim

Analyst

Atif, thank you. That's a very interesting question. I also heard from that kind of comments in the industry as well. But you know who knows, but from what we concern was I mean we have a new design wins continue to grow with multiple Chinese vendor. And as we said, we have about six new designs in China smartphone maker, so far as I think these revenue growth comes in with number of design wins as well as success. But I think the Huawei has been growing and strong. So, but beyond that I cannot speculate.

Atif Malik

Analyst

Understood. And then, and Jonathan a question on the gross margins. I'm not asking for an outlook for the second half of the year, but just directionally it's good to see that the wafer pricing started to come down now as you pointed out. How should we think about the different moving parts in your gross margins for the second half of the year? The mix between display, power standards, foundries utilization improving and in the cost of wafers coming down.

Jonathan Kim

Analyst

Atif, thank you for that question. As we discussed Q1 and first half of the year really are going to be impacted by the decline in utilization and primarily related to the foundry business. And we've also mentioned that we see that business stabilizing. And so as we are recovering in the second half, we should see an improvement in gross margin as well. And we -- as the utilization improves, the fixed cost allocation to the products will also be decreased. And so, therefore, the impact of gross margin will be trending up. So, directionally, our gross margin will continue to increase in the second half.

Atif Malik

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back to Mr. Bruce Entin for closing remarks.

Bruce Entin

Analyst

Okay. Thank you, Victor. So this concludes our first quarter 2019 earnings conference call. Please look for details of our future events on MagnaChip's Investor Relations Web site. Thank you for joining us today.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today's conference. This does conclude the program. And you may all disconnect. Everyone have a great day.