Earnings Labs

Universal Display Corporation (OLED)

Q2 2009 Earnings Call· Tue, Aug 11, 2009

$89.62

-1.76%

Key Takeaways · AI generated
AI summary not yet generated for this transcript. Generation in progress for older transcripts; check back soon, or browse the full transcript below.

Same-Day

+3.83%

1 Week

-1.87%

1 Month

+16.62%

vs S&P

+11.56%

Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Jeremy and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Universal Display second quarter financial results conference call. (Operator instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to. Paul Johnson, on behalf of Universal Display Corporation. Sir, you may begin.

Paul Johnson

Management

Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks again for joining us today. With us as always are Steve Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Sid Rosenblatt, Chief Financial Officer of Universal Display Corporation. Let me start today by reminding you that this call is the property of Universal Display. Any redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the express written consent of Universal Display is strictly prohibited. Further, as this call is being webcast live, it will be made available for a period of time on Universal Display’s website. This call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the date of the live webcast of this call, August 10, 2009. All statements in this conference call that are not historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Universal Display’s beliefs, expectations, hopes, or intentions regarding the future. It is important to note that these statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause Universal Display’s actual results to differ from those projected. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in the company’s periodic reports filed with the SEC. Universal Display disclaims any obligation to update any of these statements. With that out of the way, I’d like to turn the call over to Steve Abramson, President and CEO of Universal Display. Please go ahead, Steve.

Steve Abramson

President and CEO

Thank you, Paul, and thank you everyone for joining us for our second quarter first half conference call. As always, I’ll share some brief comments regarding our results and the facts of our technology in the OLED industry. Afterward, Sid will review the financial results for second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2009 in greater detail. This was an encouraging quarter for us, particularly from a revenue standpoint. Revenue will increase in a quarter-over-quarter and sequential basis to approximately $3 million and approximately $5.8 million for the first six months of the year. It appears that the global economic slowdown has simply slowed the growth of AMOLED display sales. This was made clear by Samsung SCI in recently discussing their own second quarter results. As we put in the Wall Street Journal on July 22, Samsung is expecting “strong operating profit in the third quarter and demands for active matrix organic light or AMOLEDs used in flat panel screens is looking solid.” The report highlighted AMOLEDs along with battery sales as an area of strength for Samsung. The Korea Times further clarified Samsung’s AMOLED strategy noting that Samsung SCI and Samsung Electronics joint venture, Samsung Mobile Display, is on the right track as Samsung Electronics has aggressively promoted its high end and text feature Smart Phones equipped with AMOLED panel. I want to say SCI will earn additional profit in the AMOLED sector and Samsung group’s electronic unit clarified its firm stance on AMOLED.” As demand is understandable, given the positive reviews of devices, like the Samsung impression mobile phone are receiving. Critics are paying particular attention to the quality and efficiency of the phone’s AMOLED display. This is clearly a technology that Samsung and others in the mobile display market are committed to at this juncture. We…

Sid Rosenblatt

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Steve and again, thank you everyone for joining us on the call today. I will begin today with a detailed look at revenues for the second quarter of 2009. Then I will review some other key financial results, such as net loss, operating expenses, and cash used in operating activities. We’ll then turn the call over to the operator for your questions. Revenues for the second quarter of 2009 totaled approximately $3 million compared to $2.1 million for the second quarter of 2008. Total commercial revenue during the quarter was approximately $1.2 million compared to $1.4 million for the second quarter of 2008. Commercial chemical revenues and royalties and license revenues for the quarter were $570,000 and $503,000 respectively, compared to $938,000 and $547,000 respectively for the second quarter of 2008. The majority of this revenue in the second quarter of 2009 was from the sale of our proprietary OLED materials to our licensee, Samsung SMD. A portion of this revenue was from a small amount of material with other customers during the quarter. The revenue decline corresponds to a decrease in material shipments to Samsung during the second quarter. It is our understanding that this decline was due to Samsung’s implementation of manufacturing process efficiencies and improved device structures and material utilization. Shipment volume and revenues remain difficult for us to predict on a quarter-to-quarter basis. Royalty revenues were generated under our patent license agreement with Samsung SMD. During our agreement with Samsung, we received royalty reports at a specified period of time after the end of the quarter in which the royalty-bearing products are sold by Samsung. Consequently, the royalty revenue from Samsung for the three months ended June 30, 2009, reflects royalties for products sold by Samsung during the first quarter of 2009. License revenue…

Operator

Operator

(Operator instructions) Your first question is from the line of Jim Ricchiuti from Needham. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Company: Question on the commercial revenue stream. I think we all recognize how difficult it is to forecast this portion of the revenue, but do you have any sense, you know, we’ve had now I guess about five or six consecutive quarters of sequential declines in the commercial revenue stream. Would you anticipate that this would be up quarter-over-quarter in Q3?

Steve Abramson

President and CEO

That obviously as we said is difficult to predict. We are encouraged by what’s going on so far in the quarter. What we believe has occurred as we said is they’ve incorporated a number of manufacturing process efficiencies, material utilization, as you’re probably well aware has been very low and the fact that they are now we believe running the tool at a much more efficient level, has allowed them to be much more efficient in terms of the material utilization. Initially, a few years ago, utilization was very, very low and these materials are fairly expensive, even though when you look at a bill of materials, they are above pennies for the material content. They still are trying to increase their yields and their utilization. So it’s difficult to predict, but we believe eventually this will turn around and start to go up. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Company: A couple of follow-up questions. On the increase you saw in development chemical sales, for customers, were they all display related customers?

Steve Abramson

President and CEO

I believe so. I can’t tell you for sure, but I believe that is yes. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Company: Last question. If you could just provide an update on where you guys stand with the green organic material and whether or not you can comment on Samsung potentially beginning to use those in their displays going forward.

Steve Abramson

President and CEO

As we have said, we are very encouraged by all of the work. We are going through their manufacturing qualification process. We have always believed the second half of this year is when they would start to incorporate it. We are continuing to provide quantities of materials for them to test. So we believe that and we still are on track for the end of this year. Jim Ricchiuti - Needham & Company: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Your next question is from the line of Yair Reiner with Oppenheimer & Company. Yair Reiner - Oppenheimer & Company: In terms of the cost of chemicals, for the first time I think in a long time, your gross margins fell below 80% and I think the cost of chemicals was quite a bit higher than it’s been in the recent past. Can you explain what’s gone into that?

Sid Rosenblatt

Chief Financial Officer

Yes, interestingly enough, the mix between commercial and developmental chemical sales through development chemicals this quarter were higher and our developmental chemicals that we sell are early stage and they are all not in full production scale. So when we sell commercial chemicals that are in full production, they cost us less than our developmental chemicals do. So as we sell developmental chemicals, and in this case that number was higher, our cost of the developmental chemicals is higher. If it was all commercial, it would be back where it was before. Yair Reiner - Oppenheimer & Company: Then a question on industry capacity. Samsung has clearly been investing in ramping up its ability to produce more AMOLED panels. Do you see LG Display stepping up and making it a similar commitment and if so when do you think they might become a more substantial part of your revenue mix?

Steve Abramson

President and CEO

LG has stated that they intend to introduce some limited quantities of TVs by the end of the year. We know that they have a, it’s been announced, a Gen 3.5 line that they expect to start shipping product the end of this year. We would expect them to be a customer of ours and we expect them to start ramping up and eventually spend more money. So yeah, we do believe that LG will be a customer of ours and that it will impact our revenue. Yair Reiner - Oppenheimer & Company: One final question and then I’ll get back into line. For a commercialization assistance, am I correct in remembering that that contract goes through September. I was wondering if you have any visibility into the extension of that contract beyond September?

Steve Abramson

President and CEO

At this point, we really don’t have anything that we could talk about. It does run out the end of this quarter. We clearly would like to be able to continue to working with the customer and it will really depend on what happens over the next couple of months. Yair Reiner - Oppenheimer & Company: Thank you.

Steve Abramson

President and CEO

With that, I believe there are no other questions. So we appreciate you all listening and again as you’re all well aware, you can contact me directly and I’ll be happy to answer any questions that you may have. With that, thank you very much for participating and we will talk to you all soon. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect your lines.