Earnings Labs

Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. (UCTT)

Q2 2008 Earnings Call· Tue, Jul 29, 2008

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon. My name is Rachael, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome everyone to the Ultra Clean Technology’s Second Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks there will be a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]. Joining us today is Mr. Jack Sexton, Chief Financial Officer as well as Clarence Granger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Sexton. Sir, you may begin your conference. Jack Sexton – Chief Financial Officer: Thank you, Rachael. Good afternoon and welcome to our second quarter financial results conference call. My name is Jack Sexton, Chief Financial Officer, of Ultra Clean Holdings, and with me today is our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Clarence Granger. A few moments ago we issued a press release reporting financial results for the second quarter 2008. The press release can be accessed from the Investor Relations section of Ultra Clean’s website at uct.com. In addition, we have arranged for a taped replay of this call, which may be accessed by phone. This replay will be available approximately one hour after the call’s conclusion and will be accessible for two weeks. The dial-in access number for this replay is 888-561-5097 for domestic callers and 706-679-7569 for international dialers. The pass code is 55-63-07-79 for both domestic and international callers. This call is also being webcast live with a web replay also available for 14 days from the Investor Relations section of our website at uct.com. Together with our recently issued press release, this conference call enables the company to comply with the SEC regulations for fair disclosure. Therefore, investors should accept the contents of this call as the company’s official…

Operator

Operator

[Operator instructions]. Your first question comes from Edwin Mok of Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

Hi, thanks for taking my question. How are you doing Jack and Clarence?

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

Hi, Mok.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

So, the first question is on, I just on the housekeeping’s question. How much of the revenue came from the China facility in the past quarter?

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

19% came up from our two China facilities which is flat with prior quarter as a percentage of revenue.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

So, my understanding is that China is doing your non semi-gas panel as well as the foot on dynamics too. Why is that a flat sequentially in terms of percentage of revenue, that implies you actually have lower revenue in China, right?

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

Well, the start of that really is just the full time dynamics. We haven’t yet started the gas abatement products that we spoke about in real volume. So, we did have a little bit of an increase in our PDI activity and this is offset by a slight decline, a moderate, a very slight decline elsewhere. But otherwise, the China activity moved in concert with the rest of our activities. And from a general traction standpoint, we are, I mean, transitional analysis and work done is of course on setting up for the Gen-8 and the extension of our full time dynamics relationship and of course getting ready for these gas abatement tools we spoke about. So, there is a lot going on out there. It just happens that it’s basically flat as a percentage of revenue in this period.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

I see. And you mentioned, I imagined that’s the reason and why you have a bigger tax credit then you had expected because you were--?

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

When the number gets so close to a breakeven point, as we are this quarter, you know, percentages become little much less meaningful than they do in normal instances. So, relatively small difference in the tax jurisdictions in which we operate in terms of the tax charge and credit can create a large percentage movement.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

I see. And then, based on your guidance for the September quarter it seems to imply that you still have this kind of higher than normal tax rate, is that a correct assessment?

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

No, as I indicated in the text, we are guiding 29% effective tax rate. So, on a go forward basis, you can use 29%. It could very well be that because of the low levels of loss/profit during these period, while we’re very close to breakeven that the percentage is skewed but for modeling purposes I suggest you remain with 29%.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

Right. And then, one more question regarding next quarter guidance. Based on your guidance and it seems to imply you expect a slightly lower gross margin just from fixed cost assumption, is that correct?

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

Correct. There is a bit of volume impact, the midpoint of our guidance range is $63 million and of course there is bit of fixed cost impact reducing our margin to about 10.5% at that midpoint.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

Great. that’s all I have for now. Let me just -- let the other guys go on. Okay, thanks.

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

Thanks, Edwin.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from Jenny Noone of JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Hi, guys good afternoon.

Jack Sexton

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Hi, Jenny.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Just couple of quick question, Clarence you said that EPS guidance for next quarter is that a $0.03 to $0.10 loss or is that $0.03 to $0.10 profit?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

No, $0.03 to $0.10 loss.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Okay, and then is it, is the $0.022 charge that’s included for the move, is that also include like any sort of additional employee severance cost, if you have any more coming next quarter?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

No, there is no additional severance cost included in that number.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Okay, and then but you have some, I guess last quarter right?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Correct. I indicated in the text $400,000 approximately.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Okay. What is your EPS for the June quarter excluding the restructuring and the moving costs? Can you give us that?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Sure. If you take the midpoint of the guidance range, you’re right around $0.06 per share and if you take out $0.02 per share moving cost, you are down to $0.04. And, then the other cost you want, of course we got one penny per share for the amortization of intangibles and a 4 penny per share for SFAS 123R. Was there one more level you wanted to [multiple speakers]

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Yeah, I was thinking for the June quarter, what you reported [multiple speakers]

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Yeah, we are going to get profit.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Sorry, about that, you guys reported negative $0.01.

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Right.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

For the June quarter and then I’m just wondering if I pull out the employee severance cost of $400,000 and the moving cost of $300,000 and the duplicated rent of $200,000, where does that get you, well I guess, half rating number?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

So you basically add back $0.03 to that $0.01 loss.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Okay, got you. Then did you guys give your percentage of gas panel versus non gas panel?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Yeah, the non gas has increased to 55% of total from 50% last quarter. And, again that’s primarily a function of the decline being mostly in the semiconductor side, all of our non semiconductor is non gas panel or most of our non semiconductor is non gas panel. So, since we had growth we had 18% growth in the non-semiconductor side most of which was non gas panel. So, that’s why the non gas panel increased to 55%.

Jenny Noone

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Okay. That’s it, thank you.

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Thanks, Jenny.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from Jay Deahna of JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Thanks very much. Hi, how are you doing? Every quarters you guys announced your mandates that’s being going on for quite some time and I’m just kind of curious, if you look back over the mandates that you have announced over the last six or seven quarters, have most the mandates ramped with your expectations in terms of dollar volume, have any not ramped at all but huge disappointments? Have any been better than expected? And then I’ve got a follow on from there.

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Sure, Jay. Yeah, this is Clarence. Yeah, obviously we did, we have taken look at that and of the announcement that we made last year, we actually announced eight project wins last year of those seven of them have come to fruition and what we had expected with the range of those would be somewhere between $40 million to $60 million in incremental revenue. I would say most of these are new products for our customers and I would say of the projected revenue, we’ve probably seen one-fourth of what they had original projected. So, it was more in the order $15 million instead of the $40 million to $60 million that our customers were projecting at the time that we received the awards of actually started getting qualified. So, we are now qualified on seven of those eight projects that we announced last year, as they start to ramp, as we start coming out of this downturn; we should do very, very well. We also have announced five projects this year with revenues ranging in 2009 between $26 million and $38 million and obviously we are just at the very early stages of shipping some of those, but we are on schedule with every single one of those. So, between what we talked about and projected for 2008, when we talked about it in 2007 and 2009, we are talking somewhere between $70 million and $100 million of potential incremental revenue and we are on track with all of those except one project. So, when the industry comes back, we should be very well positioned to see significant growth.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

So, the thesis has been as you scale into new projects and grow your non-semi business that you can deliver this consistent 15% premium midway for fab equipment industry, but it sounds like what you are saying is this your new mandates are depending upon your customers ramping new products and that’s a lot harder to get done, as a down turn which is why your down turn protection from new mandate is not as good as your upside juice [ph] if you will?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Yeah unfortunately as I said, you know, as you are rephrasing and paraphrasing these new mandates we want them, our customers are very pleased with us but the volumes particularly on the ones that have brand new products to the market place simply haven’t materialized so I guess to some extent what you are saying is true. There is a little bit less protection, but again we tend to have these whips off factor in the down turn we do tend to suffer a little more but in the upturn we also see a tremendous growth.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

And based on your mandates, year-to-date in theory what I tend to hear is that in the down turn environment you have more time to get attention from the customer. They can focus on changing the way to do things as opposed to just grinding out the next unit, because there is high demand and that you would have a bigger opportunity to get new mandates to potentially ramp into the next upside goal. It sounds like what you were saying a few minutes ago that the dollar value of your mandates to-date actually shows a little deceleration versus last year’s. Is that correct or it is just a too early in the year to make that conclusion?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Yeah, I absolutely won’t say that Jay, we have what happens again is when things get really slow like this is when our customers put a lot of these new mandates. It starts the process on these new mandates, so I would expect us to be able to talk about some other new things in the future that are going to continue to scale that growth. So, I don’t see, we have quite a few projects in the pipeline that have not been awarded but that represent excellent growth opportunities.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Okay then the last question is little bit of a loaded question if I ask you this question I mean you point in the last six quarters the answer would have been wrong. But I will ask it again. What point in the not too distant future do you see some level of stabilization in your semiconductor equipment business, such to the point where you’re new mandates and your non-semi business can drive sequential growth. I mean, when some equipment gets a zero, I guess that can happen to me, we know that’s not going to happen that, I mean (inaudible) here. But seriously do you feel like you have any better feel for that now, do you at any point in the last two or three quarters or it is till too hard to call?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Well, I guess Jay, I mean, I thought we had a good understanding of the situation couple of quarters ago, and I thought we were seeing stabilization and obviously that turned out not to be the case. Obviously, the rate of decline that we are talking about in this coming quarter is less than the rate of decline that we’ve seen our customers do seem to beginning a little more optimistic about what’s going to happen in Q1 or at the end of the year in Q1, but obviously we are not giving guidance so far out. I certainly think that we are clearly getting to very, very low levels in semiconductor capital equipment. Certainly, on the order what we have seen before and in 2005, so I would hope we are getting very, very close to the bottom and once as we approach the bottom and obviously the other mandates have a huge impact.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

And here is the absolute last question. The most recent weakness or down take that you have seen in your forecast from your semiconductor equipment, OEM customers have they been attributed to the recent weakness that has been publicized in expected NAND flash CapEx specifically from Samsung and Toshiba or has tat yet to filter down to you?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

No that’s the most recent downturn that we have seen has been very recent I would say within the last few weeks and so the general information that you are talking about I would expect has been already included in that data.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

Okay great thanks very much

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open

You are welcome, Jay

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question is a follow up question from Edwin Mok of Needham & Company. Your line is open sir.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open sir

Great, thanks. First one is on semi last quarter you guided that your non-semi would exceed 20% of your revenue for this year. Given that your growth this past quarter, you’re guiding to higher growth you care to give a more update on that estimates there?

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open sir

As we indicated its 0.2% this quarter. So, you have got two dynamics you have got an absolute growth in that business which we think will continue to grow in this most recent period it grew by 18% and that the study growth in flat panel and medical device, the growth with respect to solar is really could be much larger than that if that is to be seen and the offsetting movement there is when the semiconductor it does recover and comes back the percentage of non-semi will come down as a result of that growth. So, we don’t want to get too tied up in what it is as a percentage, it will continue to grow an absolute in the very short term its going to continue of course to grow as a percentage of revenue. But, once that semiconductor ticks in and starts to really grow then it could well shrink as a percentage of revenue. But nevertheless, this 20% benchmark is something we want to, we don’t want to commit to every quarter but its something that we will eventually be comfortable hitting all the time and then growing beyond after that.

Clarence Granger

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open sir

Edwin, to give you some idea on absolute dollars may be that’s a little easier. So at the end of the year in Q4 we were doing revenue of around $92 million so 20% of that would have been about $18 million, this last quarter if we did it over $14 million in revenue from these sources and so we’re still projecting over $18 million by Q4 somewhere in the $20 million range. I am comfortable that it will be continuing to grow and may be even more dramatically then that but that gives you an order magnitude dollar wise we are talking about something in $18 to $20 million.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open sir

That is certainly helpful. And then the second part on the semi side of business have you guys seen any incremental pricing pressure given how tough their market is right now, so your customer squeezing you a little bit, on that side?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open sir

No, we don’t see any more pricing pressure then we normally see. Our customers are ongoing negotiating with us and working on designs that will allow cost reduction and we do the same with our suppliers on a continuous basis so I don’t expect to see significantly greater cost pressure or margin pressure associated with target price reduction.

Edwin Mok

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open sir

Okay. Great, that’s all I have thanks.

Clarence Granger

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open sir

Thank you, Edwin.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mr. Jay Deahna of JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

Hi Clarence two more questions. The first one is, have you built or are you building any gas panels or other such systems or 450 millimeter systems?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

You said there were two. Well the answer to that question is no.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

Okay. And then, the second one is we all know that Applied has had a very strong surge in orders for flat panel equipment from the January quarter through the July quarter and it’s poised to taper off. They’ve stated that publicly. So if you just look at that normal cyclical nature of flat panel display and the fact that there’s a nine month leave time, is obviously going to be a lump in the snake for your business for flat panel. Now, as we look into next year do you think that the growth in Morphis [ph] silicon solar will be consistent and steady enough to drive an overall growth in your combined flat panel and solar business or will the falloff in solar create a dip -- I mean in flat panel created to combine if you get a sense as to one percent?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

Yeah. No, I understand exactly what you are saying. So, obviously we have factored in a decline in flat panel into our projections going forward for the balance of the year and with the awards that we’ve received, the incremental awards that we’ve now received in flat panel from Photon Dynamics we think that will help negate some of the downturn that we expect to see elsewhere in our flat panel business. But, on top of that we expect to see significant growth in the solar side not only with the gas delivery systems that we are currently providing but also with the gas abatement systems that we’ve been awarded some business on. So, though we expect the solar opportunity to significantly outgrow any decline that’s projected in the flat panel side.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

I see and do you actually see a peak quarter for flat panel followed by some down quarters or as you kind of ramp down to gas power production for Applied and ramp up that Photon Dynamics system business, which is the larger ASP per unit, do you actually think that flat panel can grow quarterly for the next year, year and a half or do you actually see sort of a peak and then a period of decline before it comes up again?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

I think it’s going to relatively flat now, based on the decline of the one and the increase of the other, I don’t think we will see a big drop of but I don’t think we will see it more than offsetting the decline in the gas panel side.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

And when would that happen is that like a 4Q or 1Q thing?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

Yeah, it’s more like 4Q/1Q.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

So, 4Q would be the kind of the peak of the subsystems business and that would be at?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

On the gas panel portion.

Jay Deahna

Analyst · JP Morgan. Your line is open, sir

Yeah, okay. Great, thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Our next question comes from Jesse Pichel of Piper Jaffray. Your line is open.

Jesse Pichel

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is open

Hi, this is [Pallavi] for Jesse Pichel, I just wanted to know, what do your stock based compensation was during the quarter?

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is open

It was about $1 million.

Jesse Pichel

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is open

$1 million. Okay, and also could you give us a sense of what that kind demand you’re experiencing specifically in relation to your (inaudible) from business, for your gas abatement tools?

Clarence Granger

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is open

Sure, this is Clarence. We’re at the very early stages of that so, what we said was we shipped our first prototype modules, this actually just recently, didn’t achieve revenue recognition in Q2 that’s the Q3 revenue recognition. So, we anticipate to see very good growth in that starting in like Q3 and early Q4.

Jesse Pichel

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is open

Okay, thank you.

Clarence Granger

Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is open

You are welcome.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. Mr. Sexton, there are no further questions at this time. Do you have any additional or closing remarks.

Jack Sexton

Analyst · Needham & Company. Your line is open, sir

Yes, I would like to thank everybody for joining the call. And once again encourage each of our investors and potential (Multiple Speakers) to join us on the road we are doing a bank sponsored [non-deal] roadshow, the first full week of August, we will be on the East Coast and look forward to seeing as many investors as we can. Again, thanks for the call, and we will speak to you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.