Steve Abramson
Analyst · Goldman Sachs
Thanks Darice and welcome to everyone on today's call. We are pleased to report another outstanding quarter of solid results. Revenues in the third quarter of 2017 were $61.7 million, operating profit was $15.8 million and net income was $13.5 million or $0.28 per share. During the quarter, we continued to see momentum in the OLED industry, including the launch of new flagship OLED smartphones, growing demand for OLED TVs and plans to launch the world's first foldable OLED display product. The adoption of OLED continues to expand and is fueling the exciting multi-year OLED CapEx growth cycle in which we are in the early stages. IHS Market Research recently forecasted that OLED panel production capacity is expected to more than quadruple over the next five years from approximately 12 million square meters in 2017 to about 50 million square meters in 2022. With the OLED industry's momentum accelerating faster than expected this year, we are raising our 2017 revenue guidance range to $310 million to $320 million reflecting approximately 55% to 60% year-over-year growth. Sid will provide further details shortly. Now let us review some of the industry's recent news and announcements driving this momentum. Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note 8. According to DisplayMate, the Note 8 is the most innovative and high performance smartphone display that the diagnostics research firm has ever tested. DisplayMate said the Galaxy Note 8 is notable for its highest peak display brightness, highest queen resolution and lowest screen reflectance. As a result, the Note 8 was awarded DisplayMate's highest ever A+ grade. On September 12, Samsung announced it is aiming to launch the world's first foldable smartphone in 2018. The innovative benefits of OLED include the ability to manufacture these thin film layers of plastic, making OLED inherently conformable, foldable and rollable. Samsung introduced conformable OLED displays with curved edges with the Galaxy Edge smartphones and more recently with its Infinity Displays. Many in the OLED industry believe the foldable, bendable is the next milestone in the form factor product roadmap. Wouldn't it be great if you could just roll off a display and tuck it in your pocket? We believe that OLEDs are not only changing the way we use displays, but will continue to broaden the consumer electronics landscape into applications yet to be imagined. Also on September 12, LG Display hosted an OLED Partners Day in China. Leading Chinese OEM Skyworth, an early adopter of OLED TVs, attended the forum and stated that OLED TVs which can offer new value would be a breakthrough in the display industry. Speaking of OLED TVs, at IFA, the largest consumer electronics trade show in Europe, 13 OEMs from around the world showcased bright, beautiful, thin OLED TVs, all with panels from LG Display. Some of the TV makers include Skyworth, Changhong, Panasonic, Toshiba, Philips, Bang & Olufsen and Sony, just to name a handful. And with regards to Sony, it was reported that Sony is enjoying strong demand for its OLED TVs, has planned to double its OLED TV shipments from 300,000 in 2017 to more than 600,000 panels in 2019. On last week's earnings conference call, LG Display reaffirmed its strong commitment to OLEDs, with $17 billion in OLED CapEx plans for 2020, split 50-50 between mobile and TVs and forecasting that they expect to about 1.7 million OLED TV panels this year, 2.5 to 2.8 million panels in 2018 and by 2020, their objective is to exceed 6.5 million panels. September 12 was a busy day in the OLED world as it also marked the unveiling of Apple's iPhone 10. The flagship product, which Tim Cook noted, will set the path for technology for the next decade. It is the first Apple smartphone design with an OLED screen dubbed the super retina display. According to Apple, OLED's level of quality, responsiveness and efficiency is really quite a breakthrough in mobile displays. Moving on to China. Last week, BOE Technology held its mass production ceremony for its Gen6 Chengdu plant, China's first greenfield OLED fab. At the ceremony, BOE delivered its flexible OLED display panels to more than 10 customers including Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, ZTE and Nubia. BOE also reconfirmed that second Gen6 flexible OLED fab in Mianyang will begin ramping in 2019. Ever Display, with whom we announced a customer agreement in August, stated it was progressing with its new $4 billion OLED fab. Ever Display's Gen6 fab is expected to produce 30,000 plates per month and is slated to begin ramping in 2019. Additionally, according to reports, Royole Corporation is constructing a Gen 5.5 flexible OLED production facility in Shenzhen. In Taiwan, it was reported last month that Innolux is producing small flexible OLED displays primarily for the wearables market. And in Japan, Japan Display announced that it plans to start mass producing OLED panels for smart phones in 2019. Switching gears to OLED lighting. Pioneer has developed bendable OLED lighting for cars that are bright, conformable and long-lasting with a lifespan of 10 years. According to reports, Pioneer's OLED lights can be customized in terms of color, brightness and other factors to meet the design needs of automakers. It is expected that product is ready in 2020. One of the main benefits of OLED taillights for automakers is form factor and the ability to create novel designs. The newest adoptee is Mercedes-Benz who unveiled its S-Class Coupe and Cabriolet with OLED taillights. This makes Mercedes the third automotive maker to adopt OLED lighting adding to the list, which includes Audi and BMW. As OLED activity continues to flourish, we remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing our robust OLED materials and technology leadership. On the materials front, we are investing, innovating and commercializing new emissive materials and technologies, including new reds, greens, yellows and hosts. With respect to blue, we believe we are making excellent headway in our ongoing development work for our commercial phosphorescent blue emissive system. We also continue to advance our work in organic vapor jet printing, our novel manufacturing process for mask-less, solvent-less, dry direct printing of large OLED panels. In addition, we are expanding our customer programs to support our growing base stepping up research investments that could generate significant innovation for future growth and building capacities to meet increasing OLED demand. Earlier this week, we announced the completion of a new OLED materials production line at PPG's Barberton, Ohio plant. This $50 million investment is expected to double our phosphorescent emitter production capability. OLED is fast becoming a requirement for the best consumer electronic products around the world. As a leading enabler in the ecosystem, our proprietary OLED materials and technologies are key to unlocking the performance, value and power efficiency of OLEDs. On that note, let me turn the call over to Sid.