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ON Semiconductor Corporation (ON)

Q3 2017 Earnings Call· Mon, Nov 6, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ON Semiconductor Third Quarter 2017 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. I would now like to turn the conference over to Parag Agarwal, Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. You may begin.

Parag Agarwal - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Thank you, Sonia. Good morning, and thank you for joining ON Semiconductor Corporation's third quarter 2017 quarterly results conference call. I'm joined today by Keith Jackson, our President and CEO; and Bernard Guttmann, our CFO. This call is being webcast on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.onsemi.com. A replay of this broadcast, along with our earnings release for the third quarter of 2017 will be available on our website approximately one hour following this conference call, and the recorded broadcast will be available for approximately 30 days following this conference call. The script for today's call and additional information related to our end markets, business segments, geographies, and channels are also posted on our website. Our earning release and this presentation includes certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to most directly comparable measures and to GAAP are also in our earning release which is posted separately on the website in the Investor Relations section. During the course of this conference call, we'll make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or future financial performance of the company. The words believe, estimate, project, anticipate, intend, may, expect, will, plan, should, or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We wish to caution that such statements are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from projections. Important factors which can affect our business, including factors that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements are described in our Form 10-Ks, Form 10-Qs, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional factors are described in our earnings release for the third quarter of 2017. Our estimates may change, and the company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changed assumptions or other factors except as required by law. For all synergy-related discussion on this call, we have used Fairchild's 2015 results as a base for all comparisons. Now, let me turn it over to Bernard Gutmann who will provide an overview of third quarter 2017 results. Bernard?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Thank you, Parag, and thank you everyone for joining us today. Our execution momentum remains intact, and we once again delivered solid financial results, which exceeded our guidance and Street consensus for all key metrics. Our consistent solid execution and robust financial results over the last many quarters demonstrate the strength of our operating model and strong market acceptance of our broad portfolio for automotive, industrial, and communications end markets. We once again generated strong free cash flow and demonstrated solid operating leverage. I am very pleased to announce that at the end of the third quarter, we were able to achieve our target net leverage ratio of 2 times, significantly ahead of schedule. We calculate net leverage ratio by dividing our net debt at principal value by adjusted EBITDA, excluding stock-based compensation for the last 12 months. This aggressive deleveraging within approximately one year of close of the Fairchild acquisition is a testament to our strong strategic rationale for the acquisition and to our solid execution on the integration front. We have now reached the point where we can consider reinitiating our capital return program. Our business remains strong and, indication from customers and macroeconomic data point to continuing strength in demand across most end market and geographies. Our past investments in automotive, industrial, and communication end markets are yielding strong results and we are very well positioned to benefit from sustainable secular driver in the fastest-growing segment in the semiconductor market. At the same time, our highly diversified customer base with no end customer contributing more than 5% of our revenue insulates us from volatility that occurs from time to time in various end markets and geographies. Our free cash flow regeneration remains strong and we once again delivered robust free cash flow performance during the third quarter.…

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Thanks, Bernard. Once again, I am very pleased with our results. Our third quarter results clearly demonstrate the strength of our portfolio for automotive, industrial, and communications end markets. Through our investments of the last many years in high-growth segments and in highly differentiated products in automotive, industrial, and communication end markets, we have radically transformed the nature of our business. Our business today is driven by sustainable secular growth drivers in the fastest growing semiconductor end markets, as opposed to being driven by macroeconomic and industry cyclicality a few years ago. With approximately 75% of revenue coming from automotive, industrial, and communications end markets, we are overwhelmingly exposed to the fastest-growing segments of the semiconductor market. Our traction in high-growth areas such as ADAS, electric vehicles, silicon carbide, machine vision, industrial power management, et cetera, continues to accelerate and remain very optimistic about our near and long-term prospects. We believe that we are in the early stages of realizing benefits of our investments in the automotive and industrial end markets. And increased adoption of ADAS, electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, machine vision, robotics, et cetera, should drive further acceleration in our revenue. We continue to invest in the automotive and industrial end markets as we believe that these markets will be the fastest-growing semiconductor end markets. Along with strong revenue growth driven by secular growth drivers, our operating performance has been solid. We have demonstrated strong operating leverage through solid gross and operating margin improvement. Our operating profit growth significantly exceeded growth in our revenue, and our free cash flow generation thus far this year has significantly exceeded our free cash flow in 2016. We further expect expansion in our margins as we realize further benefits from synergies from Fairchild and from our gross margin improvement initiatives. Based on…

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Thank you, Keith. Before I go into the details of the fourth quarter guidance, let me point out that the fourth quarter has two extra days as compared to the third quarter of 2017. As the fourth quarter is predominantly front-end loaded, we don't expect incremental revenue due to the extra two days in the quarter. However, we will have to bear fixed costs and operating expenses for the two extra days in the fourth quarter, and these costs will have slightly negative impact on gross margin and operating expenses for the fourth quarter. Based on product booking trends, backlog levels, and estimated turns levels, we anticipate that the total ON Semiconductor revenues will be $1.325 billion to $1.375 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017. Backlog levels for the fourth quarter of 2017 represent 80% to 85% of our anticipated fourth quarter revenue. For the fourth quarter of 2017, we expect GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin in the range of 36.3% to 38.3%. Factory utilization in the fourth quarter is likely to be down sequentially. We expect total GAAP operating expenses of $324 million to $345 million. Our GAAP operating expenses include the amortization of intangibles, restructuring, asset impairments, and other charges which are expected to be in the $30 million to $37 million. We expect total non-GAAP operating expenses of $294 million to $308 million. The increase in operating expenses in the fourth quarter as compared to those in the third quarter is primarily driven by two extra days in the fourth quarter. We anticipate fourth quarter GAAP net income and expense, including interest expense will be in the $33 million to $36 million, which includes noncash interest expense of $8 million to $9 million. We anticipate our non-GAAP net other income and expense, including interest expense will…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Ross Seymore of Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Ross C. Seymore - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open

Hi, guys. Thanks for letting me ask a question. The first one's for Keith. Keith, you mentioned a couple times in your script about the company being less cyclical in addressing more secular growth. So, I guess a two-pronged question. First, can you talk about what you think makes the company less cyclical? And then second, there's a lot of investor concern on the cyclical side of the equation. Can you give us your view on where we are in the cycle?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Certainly. I think the first comment on secular is really looking at longer-term growth trends. We've mentioned many times in automotive that the electrification and automation there is going to be driving significant growth independent of economic cycles. We have the same kind of feeling about industrial. There are a lot of applications there where we're automating buildings, we're looking at automating manufacturing et cetera, and those trends will supersede any kind of economic cyclicality. So, we think those are the two dominant drivers making us much more secular. Secondly, relative to how we see the cycle, we continue to see strength on all fronts from our customers. And as we look out to – we don't see any macroeconomic landmines on the horizon. And so as a result, we expect to see continued growth into a longer-than-normal semiconductor cycle.

Ross C. Seymore - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open

Thanks for that. And then the follow-up question is for Bernard. On the margin and free cash flow, great job on those metrics. As we look forward, can you give us an update on where we are for the Fairchild integration? I believe you said you had about $65 million of synergies remaining, and you talked about the backend consolidation kicking in. Can you just walk us through the major steps to get that incremental $65 million, please?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

The majority of it comes, as you stated, from the insourcing of assembly and test activities which will start ramping towards the end of this year and will really ramp into 2018. We have launched multiple CapEx programs associated with that, and they're all in the works. So, we expect that to start really in earnest as we go into next year.

Ross C. Seymore - Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Chris Danely of Citigroup. Your line is now open.

Christopher Brett Danely - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Chris Danely of Citigroup. Your line is now open

Hey. Thanks, guys. I think in the first part of the call you mentioned lead times had gone out a little bit. And then, Keith, you said that they haven't materially changed. So, can you guys just maybe give us a sense of what would be a sort of an aggregate of your normal lead times and where they are right now? And when would you expect those to get back to normal?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes. They've been operating not too far from the mid-teens for some time. They went up marginally here in the last quarter. Some of the capital we're bringing in here in Q4 should start to alleviate that by the middle of next year.

Christopher Brett Danely - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Chris Danely of Citigroup. Your line is now open

And so, you said they went up a little bit. Did they go up by a day? Two days? A week? A weekday? How much did they go up?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Not even – a day or less.

Christopher Brett Danely - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Chris Danely of Citigroup. Your line is now open

Oh, okay. And the second question would be just on the capital structure. You said you might be able to institute the capital return program. Maybe just talk about how we should think of the debt pay down going forward and then what a capital return program would look like.

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

So, as debt matures naturally, we have redeemable debt, at that time we'll continue paying debt down. And we'll be discussing with our board the capital allocation policy going forward.

Christopher Brett Danely - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · Chris Danely of Citigroup. Your line is now open

Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Vivek Arya of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is now open.

Vivek Arya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is now open

Thanks for taking my question, and congratulations on the good results and execution. One more on the capital returns program, since you did tantalize us with that remark in your prepared comments. Keith, are you more – are you favoring more a buyback program or an initiation of dividend? Because when I look at the free cash flow yield, it was 7% to 8% on the stock right now, so quite attractive. The other option, of course, is to consider additional M&A and maybe expand gross margins beyond the 40% target. So, without any quantification, if you could give us some additional color on which way you're leaning, that would be very helpful.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

We have active authorization for stock buyback. But the board is discussing whether there are other means similar to what you just discussed that might be better in the long term for the shareholders. And so, we won't give any more clarity to that until next quarter.

Vivek Arya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is now open

I see. And then in terms of the competitive landscape, we have heard more noise coming out of Sony in terms of their intention to compete in the automotive image sensor market. I understand these relationships with customers tend to be long-term, so there's probably no change in the near-term. But just longer term, how do you see your technology position in the automotive image sensor market versus Sony or any other competitor?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes. We continue to drive technologies specific to automotive that we think are a competitive advantage across the board. We also have many years of experience in automotive reliability and quality, along with cyber security and functional security. So, we think we've got a lead there that we can maintain with continued investments specific to the automotive industry.

Vivek Arya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is now open

And the same question from a cost perspective, how do you think your cost basis compares with some of your competitors who might have higher volumes just because they are engaged in the smartphone industry?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes. We believe we continue to be cost-competitive there, having driven like we do in all of our product lines, very good supply chains, and very good manufacturing efficiencies.

Vivek Arya - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Your line is now open

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris Caso of Raymond James. Your line is now open. Chris Caso - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Yes. Thank you. Good morning. Wonder if you could talk a bit about seasonality, both in terms of what you would consider to be normal seasonality in the fourth quarter and how your guidance shapes up against that. As we look into next year, there are a lot of moving parts as we go into Q1. But now that Fairchild's been on the books for quite a while, where do you see normal seasonality in Q1?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Thanks, Chris. So, we believe our normal blended seasonality for the fourth quarter is in that 2% to 4%, so approximately 3%, which we believe that our guidance matches that normal seasonality. Fairchild had a more pronounced seasonality than ON, but the combined blended average is that approximately 3%. For Q1, we look in that range of zero of 2% down. Chris Caso - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Okay. And going forward, just with regard to pricing, given the tight supply conditions industry-wide, I'd have to imagine that pricing is favorable and likely coming down less than where your costs are. With that in mind and also the annual price negotiations you guys typically have in Q1, what should we think about pricing as we go into next year? And what potential impact could that have on margins as we look into 2018?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

So, normally, we see 5% to 6% price erosion a year. We are currently experiencing less than that rate, and I would expect that to continue into next year. Our annual cost reduction internally, we try to target to be faster than those price erosions. And so, I would expect to see margin pick-up. Exact basis points, I'm not sure I can give a forecast on, but it should be quite favorable in our margin gains towards our targets. Chris Caso - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Craig Ellis of FBR B. Riley. Your line is now open.

Craig A. Ellis - B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Analyst · FBR B. Riley. Your line is now open

Yes. Thanks for taking the question and thanks for getting the changed name right. Keith, first, congratulations on the numerous accomplishments in the quarter. Two, if we just look at this year's free cash flow generation at $700 million and think about what that means over the three-year target model period, that's $2.1 billion of value creation flexibility that you now have in the business. So, as you look at the $2 in earnings per share target for 2020, one, how much does this year's expanded free cash flow increase your confidence in attainability? And two, doesn't it mean that there's significant pull-in potential from 2020, given the levers that you now have at your disposal?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

So, thanks, Craig. Definitely, we are very happy with the free cash flow evolving right now. It does provide us a significant amount of increased confidence that we will be able to achieve our promised target model. And indeed, it would point into potentially even accelerating that target.

Craig A. Ellis - B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Analyst · FBR B. Riley. Your line is now open

All right. And then the follow-up is on the PC business, obviously, very strong quarter there. And the question is how much of the sequential growth came from gains in the server businesses? And as we look to 2018, how should we think about the evolution of mix between the legacy PC business and the growth of the company is now realizing with server power?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Most of that did come from server power, and I would expect going forward that, that will be the increases that you see. For a lot of reasons in the end markets, the kind of personal computer use has flattened out and plateaued. So, it's really – we're looking for growth from the server power side.

Craig A. Ellis - B. Riley FBR, Inc.

Analyst · FBR B. Riley. Your line is now open

Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Vijay Rakesh of Mizuho. Your line is now open.

Vijay Raghavan Rakesh - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst · Mizuho. Your line is now open

Yes. Hi, guys. Just looking at 2018, there is a lot of worry around the automotive side but content continues to grow. Is there a way you can take a look in the crystal ball and see how – tell us how 2018 looks just automotive-wise?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes. So, obviously, we have the same forecast everyone has on SAAR. We're looking at the low 1%, 2% ranges. But from a content perspective, significant more adoption on ADAS we think gives us kind of the high single-digit opportunity in 2018.

Vijay Raghavan Rakesh - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst · Mizuho. Your line is now open

Got it. And then as a camera ADAS supplier, you guys have worked and collaborated with NVIDIA and Mobileye. You mentioned AI, can you talk to us what you're doing there? And what is the book-to-bill in automotive here? Thanks.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Okay. Those are diverse questions. Book-to-bill continues to be above 1 in automotive as, frankly it is in all our markets right now, so I'm not going to give those numbers. On the AI front, there's two areas that we collaborate on. One is with the power for AI. It's going to – there's significantly more compute power and this is a part of our power supply program. And then secondly, interfacing with all of the sensors and the sensor interface products is predominantly where we interface with the AI people directly on the signal side.

Vijay Raghavan Rakesh - Mizuho Securities USA, Inc.

Analyst · Mizuho. Your line is now open

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Rajvindra Gill of Needham & Company. Your line is now open. Rajvindra S. Gill - Needham & Company, LLC: Yes. Thank you, and congrats as well. Question on the silicon carbide traction you're getting. I just want to get some clarification, are you selling both the silicon carbide substrates, the wafers, as well as the power RF devices that are built on those silicon substrates? And along those same lines, kind of how would you characterize the competitive landscape in silicon carbide in terms of capacity and technological capability?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

So, we are only selling silicon carbide power devices. We don't sell substrates, and that market is growing quite rapidly. It needs more than one supplier and there are I think two or three total competitors out there. So, we see a lot of healthy growth there in a market that is going to explode, quite literally, from a growth perspective in 2018, 2019 timeframe. Rajvindra S. Gill - Needham & Company, LLC: And just one follow-up on that as well because I agree with that assessment. From my perspective, the biggest advantage of silicon carbide power device is their ability to do high-frequency switching at lower temperature than silicon. I was wondering if you could describe some of the advantages, from your perspective, and what's driving the adoption on for that technology?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes. You get much higher efficiencies in your power conversion, which means you don't have to do as much cooling, and that removes a lot of cooling weight from the automobiles giving them longer battery lives, et cetera. You also get much more dense power solutions, so they can be much smaller to get the same performance. Rajvindra S. Gill - Needham & Company, LLC: Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Shawn Harrison of Longbow Research. Your line is now open.

Shawn M. Harrison - Longbow Research LLC

Analyst · Longbow Research. Your line is now open

Hi. Good morning. First question, just a two-parter on the communications business. How much of just walking away from mobile image sensor business did that cost you into the September quarter? And then, are you expecting to see maybe less than seasonal headwinds as we move into the March quarter given the later launch of the iPhone this year?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

So, the direct revenue quarter-on-quarter between two and three was a $12 million reduction that we saw in that. From a year earlier, it was much higher but quarter-on-quarter about $12 million. Yes, there were later launches for certain other phones. We do expect to have the opportunity for a stronger than normal seasonality in Q1. How much is yet to be determined.

Shawn M. Harrison - Longbow Research LLC

Analyst · Longbow Research. Your line is now open

Perfect. And then as a follow-up, if I may, if we look at the typical step-up you see in OpEx going into the March quarter, variable (42:17) other things. How much of that on a dollar basis may step up, understanding that there's a little bit of an extra two day dynamic here in the fourth quarter?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

With the extra two days going away, I expect that the OpEx will be down.

Shawn M. Harrison - Longbow Research LLC

Analyst · Longbow Research. Your line is now open

Down on a sequential dollar basis? For the March quarter?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes.

Shawn M. Harrison - Longbow Research LLC

Analyst · Longbow Research. Your line is now open

Perfect. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Christopher Rolland of Susquehanna International Group. Your line is now open.

Christopher Rolland - Susquehanna International Group

Analyst · Susquehanna International Group. Your line is now open

Thank you for the question, and great quarter, guys. So, divestitures, maybe any more details on the mobile divestiture or at least IP agreement? And also you mentioned another pending divestiture that you guys might be doing. Is it bigger or smaller than the mobile one? And how many other opportunities do you kind of see to divest in businesses.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Details will be coming out in the 10-Q, but that mobile business has completed its divestiture. The other ones we referred to will be smaller than that one that will be announced here in this quarter.

Christopher Rolland - Susquehanna International Group

Analyst · Susquehanna International Group. Your line is now open

Great. And then back to your position, more around the silicon carbide stuff, and your position in high power as well, maybe you want to describe that. Does silicon carbide open up a bunch of new markets for you in higher power? And then also, what are your feelings on GaN? Are you now significantly favoring silicon carbide over GaN?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Okay. Silicon carbide, we're supplying today into the industrial market. Basically it goes in the modules, power modules that we have, IGBTs in today. So, some of it is displacement of IGBTs with silicon carbide in the same modules, giving us higher efficiency. And some of it, to your point, does open up new applications where either power density or thermal capacity are most important. GaN will continue to grow at a much slower pace. Our belief is that silicon carbide will be growing very, very quickly but gallium nitride power devices will take off much more slowly.

Christopher Rolland - Susquehanna International Group

Analyst · Susquehanna International Group. Your line is now open

Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Anthony Stoss of Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open.

Anthony Joseph Stoss - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC

Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open

Hi, guys. Nice quarter. Within your implied CapEx guide of next year, call it $350 million, is the Fujitsu strategic investment, is that part or included or is that on top of it? And also, Keith, do you expect your normal 75%, 25% internal versus external manufacturing to change in 2018? And then I had a follow-up.

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

So, the Fujitsu joint venture is not included in that number. That's recorded in a different place on the cash flow statement. So, it is incremental on top of the regular CapEx.

Anthony Joseph Stoss - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC

Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open

Okay. And then as a follow-up, in terms of the divestitures that you're alluding to happening in Q4, how much revenue have you been anticipating in your Q4 revenue guide as part of that?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

It would actually – I mean, it's negligible. The answer to that is, again, we're anticipating that move and so there's nothing in the guidance.

Anthony Joseph Stoss - Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC

Analyst · Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Tristan Gerra of Baird. Your line is now open. Tristan Gerra - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Hi. Good morning. As a follow-up to the prior question from Chris, and given the extension of backlog that we generally see in analog, you probably have very good visibility into early next year. Any sense of how Q1 is currently shaping? You have already mentioned what type of seasonality we should be expecting.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes. So, it's shaping up strong compared to normal seasonality. But again, specific metrics will have to wait. Tristan Gerra - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: Okay. That's great. And then at the beginning of this year you highlighted some areas that you thought could really drive growth in auto specifically, automotive sensors and LED headlights. Today you've mentioned your expectations for ADAS to be a high single-digit growth. So, I'm assuming that's your CMOS sensor business. You also talked about silicon carbide. Any sense of the, first, any other areas within automotive that you would consider as a driving factor for 2018? And also, if you could talk about the incremental dollar opportunity that you see from silicon carbide per car.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Okay. So, for clarification, the upper single-digits is for total automotive growth, not just in those applications. Things like ADAS are actually in the 20s-percent growth year-on-year, and LED headlights are in the high teens. So, the aggregate number is high single-digits, just for clarity. So, we are expecting very fast growth in the developing areas inside the car, but we have a large business that includes internal combustion engines that is not growing as fast. So, the net of that is high single-digits. And then as far as other areas, there are many areas in the car growing. They're replacing all the motors with new brushless DC motors. We've got the EV and hybrid electronic applications that can add up to $200 per car and silicon carbide certainly is a contributor to that. But in those modules, it could be $40 to $50 additional for silicon carbide. Tristan Gerra - Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc.: That's very useful. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Yes. Good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. First question is on factory utilization rates. I know it was mentioned as ticking up again this quarter. I think as of 1Q it was in the mid-80s. So, can you level set us on where factory utilization is at this point and is it over 90%?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

It is approximately the high-80s to 90%. It's not above. Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Got it. Thanks for that. And then for a follow-up question specifically on the industrial market, Keith, I know you said down in the fourth quarter and I know seasonality is always tough, some years it's been down and for my model, some years it's been up. If you could just elaborate a bit more on what you're seeing in the industrial market and what's the reason for the guidance to be lower sequentially in 4Q?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

We're just giving that guidance based on the broad-based exposure we see in the marketplace. There is nothing that stands out as being a problem. Maybe a pause, but there's no problems. Mark Delaney - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Got it. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from John Pitzer of Credit Suisse. Your line is now open. John William Pitzer - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Yes. Good morning, guys. Thanks for letting me ask the questions and congratulations on the strong result. Bernard, I wanted to go back a little bit to the Fujitsu deal and hope that you can give us some understanding of what the incremental CapEx burden would be. And I'm assuming if there's an incremental CapEx burden to that deal, there's an incremental positive running through the P&L. So, is Fujitsu part of the 2020 margin target plan or is it above and beyond that, and can you quantify that?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Definitely, it's part of our factory footprint plans. When we announced it on October 10, we basically said that getting to that incremental 30% in ownership will cost us $18 million. That's a very, very cost-effective way of getting incremental capital, much better than if we had to buy just the pure equipment, and it will definitely give us a significant amount of 200 millimeter incremental capacity that will help us relieve some of the tightness we have in some of our packages in markets. John William Pitzer - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Just to clarify, it's part of the 2020 margin plan or this would above and beyond?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

No, it's part of it. John William Pitzer - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. That's helpful.

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

It's part of getting the required capacity to get to deliver the revenues associated with the plan. John William Pitzer - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Perfect. And then, Keith, I wanted to go back to Ross' first question about just where we are in the cycle. When I look at your business, sort of direct disti and EMS, the direct numbers would clearly suggest that things aren't overheating. I think you were up about 1% sequentially, 4% year-over-year. But when you sort of look at disti up 16% year-over-year and then EMS up 18% sequentially and 20% year-over-year, can you just – is there anything going on in the mix of business that would argue things moving more towards disti? And I guess specifically in the calendar third quarter, was there a program at the EMS side that drove revenue up sequentially that much? I know it's a small part, but just trying to get an understanding of disti and EMS and what's driving the growth there.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes. A couple of very significant factors. One is we have grown significantly model-year-over-model-year with customers in areas like cell phones that use distribution and EMS as their primary sources. So, basically, outgrowing with some of those customers. Secondly, of course, Fairchild, big impact on that. They were much more distribution than ON was from a legacy perspective, and those numbers flow through as well. So, a combination of what was traditionally OEMs moving more into the EMS disti channel plus Fairchild really have changed the nature of that number. But we track very closely – continue to track very closely the sell-through, even though we are now on sell-in, and we continue to drive inventories down. So, we just don't see any signs of overheating. John William Pitzer - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: And then if I could sneak one last quick one in. Bernard, just on the free cash flow, great to see you raised the guidance for the full-year to $700 million. But given that we've done nine months already, it kind of only shows about a $40 million to $45 million free cash flow number for the calendar fourth quarter. I'm assuming there's a level of conservatism in that. But are there period costs that you can also talk about in Q4 that might be impacting free cash flow for the quarter?

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Definitely, we are trying to be prudent in the way we forecast. But as I also mentioned, we are going to spend a lot more CapEx in the fourth quarter as compared to what we spent in the first nine months. Our guidance is $140 million to $160 million in CapEx for the fourth quarter as compared to $90 million in the third quarter. John William Pitzer - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Craig Hettenbach of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Craig M. Hettenbach - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Yes. Thank you. Just had a question on the cycle, particularly lead times if I look at how you're managing through what's been titans (53:58) across the industry versus some peers and we've heard of lead times extended further. Just anything that you've been able to do to kind of help maintain the lead times not extending out as much as some others have seen.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

I think the biggest impact this cycle, which is a strong cycle right now, has been working with our distributor partners to make sure that we did not increase inventory there. That typically is what has the biggest impact on lead times is overordering and distribution. Craig M. Hettenbach - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Got it. And if I can ask a follow-up on the silicon carbide, as you mentioned, there's a couple of players in this market. Can you just talk about your visibility then as you talk to 2018 programs, kind of where you are from a design perspective and how you see that building up over time?

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Yes. As I mentioned, in the industrial sector, we've had offerings for a while and so, have good visibility on that growth. And our first automotive win is going to production Q3 of 2018. Craig M. Hettenbach - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Betsy Van Hees of Loop Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Betsy Van Hees - Loop Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Loop Capital Markets. Your line is open

Good morning, and thanks so much for taking my questions, and congratulations on the strong quarter and guidance. Thanks so much for providing us the typical seasonality for Q1. Given that you've got Fairchild under your belt for quite a long time now, I was wondering if you could walk us through what typical seasonality is for the quarters Q2, Q3, and Q4 of the combined companies. It would be very helpful for modeling purposes. Thanks.

Bernard Gutmann - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Thank you. So, the second quarter is typically in that 3% to 4%. The third quarter, approximately the same. And then the fourth quarter is down that 3%, just like we talked about earlier.

Betsy Van Hees - Loop Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Loop Capital Markets. Your line is open

Thanks, Bernard. That was very helpful. And then Keith, in the past, you've talked about wireless charging and it's been in your prepared remarks and I see you don't mention it this time. So, I was wondering if you could give us an update on where things stand with wireless charging. Thanks.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Sure. So, wireless charging has been, again, nothing new, much slower to develop than we anticipated. And most of the applications appear to be going for multimode charging which we've introduced devices for now. The big driver there we expect to be handsets, and we expect to see, again, some improvement here in 2018 but for 2017 was not a significant event.

Betsy Van Hees - Loop Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · Loop Capital Markets. Your line is open

Thanks so much. Appreciate that, Keith, and once again, congratulations on the strong results and the guidance.

Keith D. Jackson - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Parag Agarwal for any closing remarks.

Parag Agarwal - ON Semiconductor Corp.

Management

Thank you everyone for joining the call today. We look forward to seeing you at various events during the quarter. Goodbye.

Operator

Operator

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