AAC Technologies Holdings Inc. ($2018)

Good afternoon, investors, and welcome to the AAC Technologies 2025 Annual Results Announcement Investor Conference. I'm the host of this event, Joyce Huang, IR Director at AAC Technologies. First, on behalf of the company, thank you all for your interest in AAC. Please allow me to introduce the company management present today. r. Benjamin Pan, Executive Director and CEO of AAC Technologies; Mr. Kelvin Pan, Executive Vice President of AAC Tech; Mr. Dan Guo, Chief Financial Officer of AAC Tech; Mr. Jack Duan, Chairman of AAC Optics; and Mr. Shi Tingjia, Senior Vice President of Strategy of AAC Tech. Thanks, management's attendance. Today's meeting includes 2 parts, starting with my presentation on AAC 2025 annual financial performance and business development. This will be followed by a Q&A session. The statements made at this meeting contain forward-looking information, which are based on the company's assumptions and expectations regarding market conditions and the company's current development. [Operator Instructions] Next, I would like to present the group's results for 2025. In 2025, the group's revenue was RMB 30.8 billion, a rapid year-on-year increase of 16.4%. Acoustics business maintained strong performance and emerging business made huge leaps. Gross profit was RMB 7.02 billion, up 16% year-on-year. The group's GP margin was [ 21.1% ], flat year-on-year. And the group's revenue growth rate was significantly higher than its 3 expenses. Net profit increased by 39.8% to RMB 2.51 billion, mainly due to the continued improvement in the profitability of the optics and the growth of high-margin business. By 2025, the group's revenue growth significantly outpaced the expansion of global smartphone shipments, achieving both quality and efficiency enhancement. SSE, EMD and PM optics business revenue growth 21.3% and 14.1%, respectively. The group achieved rapid breakthroughs across multiple views more diversified mix. Key distribution business revenue surged by over 400%, while the shipments of hybrid lenses exceeded 10 million units and the co-development of co-motors AI hardware with customers. During the reporting period, the group's operating cash inflow was RMB 7.18 billion, up 38.1% year-on-year and its free cash flow was RMB 4.88 billion, up 65.1%. The CapEx was RMB 2.83 billion, an increase of 21.5% equivalent cash and cash equivalents was RMB 8.61 billion, increase of 14.1%. Net gearing ratio was 2.1% and down 1.1 percentage points. And this will support the development and innovation of the group. Next, I would like to share with you the performance by business segment. Acoustics. In the second half of 2025, the group's Acoustics business revenue was RMB 4.83 billion, increase of 1.6%. Full year revenue was RMB 8.3 billion, up 1.7% and gross profit margin was 27.6%. The decline was mainly due to the changes in customers and product mix with more module products. Market share among key customers remained stable with increase. And industrial first coaxis speakers delivered distinct depth and fidelity and also enable a more immersive and superior interactive experience. Automotive acoustics. In the second half of 2025, the group achieved revenue of RMB 2.3 billion, an increase of 14%. Full year revenue was RMB 4.1 billion, increase of 16%. Gross margin was 23.8%, a decrease of 1 percentage points due to the addition of new product forms and the positive impact of high-end brand automotive audio system on profitability will be materialized by 2026. Group has become one of the leading automotive audio system supplier, second only to Harman and Bose and also acquired Hebei First Light, a leading digital microphone company forming the vertical integrated business synergy. The group has supplied industrial leading 9.248ndedem for SUV constructing an immersive audit experience. Optics. In the second half, revenue was RMB 3.08 billion and the full year revenue was RMB 5.73 billion. And looking at the subdivided business line, first, micro lenses, the group secured multiple 7P projects and continue to optimize its product mix. Shipments of 7 element lessons, including 7P plastic lenses and 1G 6P hybrid lenses reached around 15 million units, further strengthening the group's positioning in the high-end optics segment. Secondly, module with a resolution of 32 megapixels and above accounted for over 40% and OS module shipments nearly doubled. And while the prescope modules achieved mass shipments for the first time secure a lot of customers. Let's focus on the combined EMD and PM segment. In the second half, revenue increased by 17% to RMB 7.14 billion. For the full year, revenue was RMB 11.77 billion, mainly due to the continued volume growth of products such as access motors, innovative buttons and acceleration received. and the group actively expanded its market share in mobile phone motors with linear motor shipments and shipments achieving double digit year-on-year. The group's market share in mid- to high-end Android phones continue to expand. And in PM, the heat dissipation business has made rapid progress with revenue of RMB 1.67 billion, an increase of over 400% year-on-year. And the group also break the upper limit of industry manufacturing efficiency and yield through its first fully automated production line. The revenue from metal frames for the smartphones was RMB 3.82 billion, an increase of 4.2%. And the group will continue to maintain leading market share in the flagship and foldable phones. Finally, let's take a look at the sense and the semiconductor business. And in 2025, this business achieved a revenue of RMB 1.57 billion, a significant increase of 10.1%, mainly benefited from increased market share of the group's higher S&R microphones, and we have already secured mass production and delivered our products to major customers in Shenzhen. After sharing this financial performance, let's focus on the core highlights and the development of the strategy. During the reporting period, we were committed to creating the ultimate experience and leading the upgrade of smart devices and also create the various interactive experiences for end consumers. In recent years, AI hardware has flourished. Small size and ease of interaction are common characteristics for future AI hardware with diverse forms. High-value AI innovative hardware jointly developed by the group and leading global players will be shipped in large quantities. In terms of the heat diss business and the group empowers and upgrading to consumers these products. And you see that the group's shipments have a compound annual growth rate of nearly 90% from 2020 to 2025. And the group has sufficient production resources to meet high technical and process standards for its clients. In the future, it will continue to accelerate the introduction of heat opportunities for new product categories. And in terms of the active cooling and leveraging innovative EMS and ultraprecision and secure its first products for the cooling fans. And we also have this different CTU and liquid cooling plate and many product cap. And we also have different customers and make breakthroughs. For example, the different customers like Baidu, Tencent, JD, Alibaba and PDD and the Chinese insurance Cathay Pacific and Haitong, et cetera. Similarly, the group's WG-related products and us in breakthroughs and the group helped the domestic customers upgrade 1G 6P main camera and micro prisms of high-end flagship models, leading WG's important progress in high-end optics. In terms of the plastic lens, the group will strive for more market share and to expand the main camera and also the prescope lenses. In terms of modules, the group has made the main camera and breakthroughs and milestone development in high-end module and through vertical integration advantages. In 2025, the group's brand system will be implemented the luxury model and they will be equipped with the group's full station solution and our high-end brand system. And also we will achieve the full coverage and on the car brand audio system of different grades such as 20,000 to 30,000 leading the way to a full station solution for automotive acoustics. In terms of AR optics group's end-to-end vertical integration and global delivery, mobility have won the favor of leading customers, designated a number of overseas leading customers' optic energy modules and optical waveguide projects. And we also have the ability to supply with our customers the optical and one-stop full display module solutions. For example, the optical waveguides, light engines and the pool lenses and eye tracking and electronics. Last but not least, let's talk about the group's complete global layout. R&D centers and the production basis have spread to nearly 20 countries and regions around the world and AAC technologies will also reach the new heights and bring higher returns to shareholders and customers. The above is my introduction to the performance of the full year for 2025, and then we will enter the Q&A session.

And the first question is from Everbright Securities. Mr. Fu, you can start asking questions.

The pressure of the industry, we see that our group has still achieved a stable progress. So I have 2 questions. The first one is about the development about the mobile phones. And the second is about the acquisition. In terms of the first question, we see that in the year 2026 and many institutes have kind of a flat description prediction on the smartphones and its shipment. So I'd like to know more about your views of the global intelligent mobile phone and also its AI influence. So how do you see the dissipation business and its upgrade? And what's our advantage?

Okay. Let me talk about briefly. I think there have been a lot of waves in the smartphone market from the second half of last year to present, meaning the entire AI influence, which has indeed created some impact on the supply chain and it caused the memory price increase. So it's true that some of the recent turmoil in the industry has been relatively large from our point of view. The pressure is still relatively good. The high-end models can actually foreseeable. So we see this as a new opportunities for the high-end products because memory price for this high proportion of the memory in this high end is relatively not as high as that of the low end. So that's one aspect. Number two, because of the memory problems in the low-end smartphones and some market predictors it's kind of difficult to survive in this kind of influence for us is very limited because dissipation mean their choice is especially in the mid to high end and upgrading. And our observation is that our customers are choosing products with better performance. In this way, the high-end models can be able to compete in this market have a better pricing. So I think the mid- to high end smartphone will be increased, and this will become the main force. And of course, the competitive landscape will become more fierce. So this is about the entire mobile phone market. In the next 3 years, -- we think this is a very important period, and we will have more integrated vertical integration of our business and we will increase the products for further development, continue to improve its penetration rate. And in addition, we will also, for example, upgrade the wireless charging and the magnetic section to help our customers to do the vertical integration and let them have a better competitive price and also have a higher cost performance we increased function and with more efficient product upgrade. This is a very efficient product upgrade routes we can provide to our customers through our motors and mechanic to optics. And this is that we continue to apply in our to provide custom AI still very important topic. We see that voice interaction and anticipation demand is ramping up of the growth for the VC cooling sector. And this is very important to help our customers stop computing power and battery life problems. In addition, we also see other new categories and exploration in the industry. For example, the MWC, they launched new products apart from the traditional functions and whether there will be new functions. And another perspective is from the brand new perspective. For example, the AR and AI glasses. Based on interaction with our top customers and there will be more customers launch the products of AI and AR technologies. This is a very important development track. And this optical waveguide and the unit price will be very high because this is a different concept with the traditional products. Number three, we see the smartphones and other companies are doing AI business and of course, some AI companies. And we are cooperating with several leading AI companies and customers from the large language models and the large scale new models, our microphones and our motors will be very important core technologies. And starting from next year, we believe our products and its value will be much higher than that of the regional and mobile phones in the next three years. Another important potential is in the automotive acoustics. And after the acquisition of PSS and also the PSG, we are fully equipped with the full range of the sound systems and capabilities. And last year, the corporation with the names systems has already proved its capabilities in terms of its public opinion, and it's still relatively flagship level influence system. So we think our autonomous layout has gone from a series of mergers of acquisition to the current system level capabilities. And recently, our focus was on China. And in the next 2 to 5 years and our automotive system will also be expanded to the overseas market and the growth space is still very considerable.

Thank you very much. we also believe that AI continues to have a lot to offer. My second question is about the about EMD Far East technologies. So how do you consider this valuation? I remember it's in the supply chain of NVIDIA. So any synergy we can create? So this is the second question.

Thank you for your question. The acquisition of Far East and we see that the revenue for this year is estimated above RMB 200 million. And based on this, we have completed acquisition. So this is a very reasonable pricing. this company is very important in its cooling liquid cooling system in the industry and its package includes all the main domestic Internet customers. So this will help us to lay out this business in the market and to gain a fast-growing domestic market and obtain the overseas market share.

Next question is from Andy Meng from Morgan Stanley.

And we see that the results exceeded expectation. But I may pick the bones in and ask a question here. If you look at the sector of this acoustics business, the gross margin feels slightly lower than the expectation. So may I know the reason and any improvement in 2025? And my second question is what's the guidance for the business segments?

Thank you very much for your question. You talked about the gross margin of acoustics is lower than the expectations. As mentioned by Kelvin. In recent years, our group has expanded our product mix and the product layout. From the early years, maybe the focus is on the speakers of master classic levels. It's more focusing on the single box or the product form. And up to now, we have actually integrated the whole concept of a large module, including some progress and they implement it in the results. So the overall gross profit margin has changed compared to before. And in the second half, we see the gross margin is steadily going up. And in the 2026, we will see the stable growth. And your second question is about the guidance for 2026. So apart from acoustics and in terms of PM and in this year and the revenue growth will be about 5% to 10% and the gross margin will maintain at a very stable level. And in terms of the PM, and this will maintain a very high growth rate in 2026 and the revenue growth will be more than 30%. And the gross margin will also rise steadily on the basis of 2025. So this another business is about the optics and ASP annual growth is about 10%. And this year, we will also see growth on the ASP and we have the confidence to see the stable growth in optics. With regard to the gross margin, you see that in terms of our yield and efficiency and our R&D have made significant improvement. So we will see this gross margin will be steadily growing on the basis of 11.5% of 2025. In terms of sensors and semiconductors and it's about double-digit growth. It's about 15% to 20%. Kelvin also talked about the automotive. It's an upgrading business. We have already acquired some brands and the revenue will be maintained double digits. And the gross margin is relatively stable as well despite the fluctuation of the industry, there are different growth drivers in the industry, and we have the confidence to realize the stable growth of our revenue and not lower than our 2025 revenue. And of course, the gross margins will maintain steady rising.

Wish the company will achieve better results in 2026.

And next question is from William Yang from JPMorgan.

I'd like to know, for example, the CSP or the new CSP, they seem to be interested or stepping into the hard growth so I'd like to more about the collaboration of the group with those big CSP and what is your expectations in the next 1 or 3 years? What's the revenue contribution they will make?

Okay. I will take the question. And from the perspective of AI, we see some big international AI companies, and they have different trials in the AI terminal devices. A more typical case, it has its own model and then it has Rayban glasses and have display AI on them and those are some simple AI features. And we also collaborated with our customers and we help them to develop lightweight and also the light engine. So this value is not just some simple functions. This is the lightweight and the light engine cost tens of dollars, right? So if we started we estimate at least USD 30 to USD 50 for each and for a pair of glasses, it would be worth at least $100. So we see it reach to the large scale and the value of this is very considerable. And some domestic companies in the industry, including, for example, some overseas companies, they are developing AI wearables, devices like portable camera inside and there will be some motors embedded in the equipment. And they will also recommend based on the customers' behavior and in those functions. And those kind of equipment and devices without the screen and many injections are based on the voice and the actions. So the most valuable part in those products will be the motor and also sensor. And we strengthened our collaboration with the customers for a long time. And if they have mass production, and this will boost our ramping up of the products. And of course, on hardware, the pricing of its hardware is different of its mobile phones because the focus of the products is not only screen or battery, it will become a motor. And this price will be much higher than the smartphone kind of considerable value. So we think in the second half of this year and next year, and this will become very good and important opportunity for us. If you compare for example, if they have a subscription and it's not only about several hundreds of thousands or million and at least it will be over 10 million. So no matter from the volume or the value and this is also -- both of them are very considerable. And this will be reflected in the second half and next year. And this good phenomenon in the industry, AI server, AI algorithm and AI models have been invested large amount with big fund and it has to return to the application scenarios return to the terminals, and we welcome this equipment and devices. And it's also a very good layout for us.

Next question is from [indiscernible].

First of all, congrats to the company's performance in 2025. I have 2 questions. The first question is about the optics. I'd like to know about the shipment guidance of the WLG and also the revenue estimation and this is about WLG. And the second question is about modules and plastic lenses and Joyce also mentioned about this camera supply prescope. So I'd like to know the shipment plan as well as the detail of the gross margins.

I'd like to answer the question. As mentioned by Ms. [ Huadong ] in 2025, our optics have achieved certain results. And our gross profit is also reached more than 30%. And in 2026 in the plastic lenses and this will maintain at this level to about 35%. And in terms of the shipment volume, we will keep flat, but ASP will be increased by 5% to 10%. And in 2025, the shipment volume has exceeded 10 million units. And this is a very important milestone to us. And we also launched the use of prescopes as well as the 3-in-1 Christmas lens. And this kind of application will be continued in 2026. And other applications, for example, the application of non-smartphones like the drones applications, we also achieved some good projects. And also win some projects in overseas market, and we are very confident to the promotion of our business in this regard.

So you talk about lenses. What about modules?

I may add a little here. This year, mentioned in PBT, the overall revenue of RMB 5.7 billion and overall gross profit margin level is 11.5%. About the ASP in lens and in 2026, we think the ASP in lens will be maintained same level last year on ASP or even 10% higher and we realized, as mentioned by Mr. [indiscernible] about the above 30% gross margin. And in 2026, we are very confident to improve our yield and efficiency and to the 35%. Regarding modules in 2025, we see that the gross margin is 4% to 5%. And in 2025, based on this basis, and we can achieve a stable growth. So that's my supplement.

Next question is from Zheng Bingyi from HSBC.

I have 2 questions. And the first question is about heat dissipation product. The growth of shipment volume is quite amazing. So I want to ask the heat dissipation product side of a major customer in the U.S. what about the percentage in 2026 and 2027? And what's the upgrade trend of this product? And this kind of product upgrade to other categories. So if we see the next 3 years development and what kind of revenue growth will this product bring to the company? This is my first question. Let me ask my second question. The second question is about the automotive acoustics business after the M&A in the next 3 years and what's the development strategy? So under this development strategy, what's the long-term strategy? For example, in 2027, 2028, what's the growth expectation?

I'd like to answer the first question. The big clients in the U.S. is always sensitive. So in terms of the heat dissipation I'd like to give a roughly comprehensive evaluation. The figures we see of 2025 is just our recent achievements and it's just the beginning. In the future, in the next 5 years, we're thinking some high-end products with the AI function strengthening and this penetration will be improved. And on the chip side, for example, in data centers and some storage, all the memories and VCs will gradually penetrate as well. the whole the premium products. And many people say it could be benchmarked against RMB system. So we think this is not only a success in single case, but also necessary for the high end of Chinese brands into this business and industry. And this is a very good route for the value integration for our customers. So in the future, we will continue our collaboration with [indiscernible]. Secondly, we can help our customers to create more value for some brand systems. You can imagine that today with the penetration of different ASP of different products in different brands and our ASP can be still going up because our customers have higher requirement demand on speakers and amplifiers and sensors. So this great potential in next 3 to 5 years every year, we can achieve a very sound double-digit growth. And with the penetration, for example, this year, we have already achieved over 10%. And in the future, there will be above 10% and higher the opportunities and also our brand system and actually has a lot of room for growth. [ TJ ], do you want to add a little more?

And actually, I think I quite agree with what Kelvin said, and we have a lot of brands apart from, we also have the second categories. So through different company and different brands and we can achieve the revenue scale of RMB 10 billion.

Due to the time constraint, we'd like to invite the last speaker.

I'm from Huatai. My name is [indiscernible]. Congratulations to the company for achieving very good results. I have 2 questions, mainly about the robotics and XR business. And we visited the CES exhibition and see that also the company's exhibition of the robotics and XR products. My first question is how do you evaluate the robotic business because it's already in the rapid development period. So do you have a detailed commercial plan? And what's your plan in some testing projects with the different companies. My second question is about XR and its business layout. I'd like to know more about the lightweight guide and also know more about the direction of this technology and its contribution for the long-term revenue of the company.

Happy to talk about robotics. We actually regard robotics as an AI and the terminal device. And we also see, for example, this is a kind of robotics and as well as different products. For example, the speakers and microphones and the aggregation equipment and AI devices can only interact with those devices and communicate with people and includes a lot of high performance devices, for example motors and heat dissipation. And those are important requirements and demand for robotics. And then they also need the optical devices and those are the interaction demand for the robotics. So AAC has a great potential in those products. Last year, also this year, we have been with leading customers in China and startup customers. In the recent years and even half and half and even a year and a half, there are many versions in the integration. And we use different devices, for example, motors or speakers, microphones and to strengthen our collaboration with different customers. So we have relatively sufficient layout in this area. Number two, at present, there is no definite models or development models. And how to meet commercial scenarios or whether they are only being used in the industrial scenarios. Some standards are not fixed and our effort is to help customers in upgrading. And apart from this, we also have the capability to help them in the mass product and we are experienced in the automotive business and electronics. So your question is about the revenue contribution. For the fixed and as you mentioned, it depends on our customers' hand. They haven't made a very specific plan. Therefore, we didn't have a specific guideline. Robotics and some smaller robotics and we also have the opportunities, we have been laying out optics and the motors and the microphones, and we also see it as progress. This is more visible than robotics. We are also preparing, for example, the high-perform products and some we are constantly interacting with our big customers, the top customers and some start-up companies. And we are reserving our capabilities. And I believe in the future when this market is further commercialized and we will have our core competitiveness and can deliver high-value products. In terms of AI, do you want to add something?

So after the acquisition of the waveguide, and this help us to unleash our advantages. And in terms of the light waveguide, we have started our in-depth cooperation with customers of Android. It is expected that by the end of this year and the beginning of next year, there will be mass production of the shipment. And apart from the Android customers, we also started our cooperation with some leading customers in the U.S. And apart from this light waveguide products, we also have the collaboration on the light engine. And after 2 years or 3 years and the mass production will be realized. So this is not only our plan in the domestic market. We also have our business plan in the overseas market, and this will be realized in A1 and X3.

And next, I would like to welcome Benjamin Pan, Executive Director and CEO of AAC to give a summary.

Thank you very much. Thank you, all the investors for participating in today's meeting. I'd like to make a brief summary here. I think the transition of the group started from 2020, and we experienced 5 years and the results and effect is obvious. First of all, from the financial side, our current scale gradually establishing and through a definite growth of multiple product lines. The whole group is not subject to the original mobile phone and we also secure our growth from other products. So you see we have set our target of 2026. It's about 16%. And of course, this is the effort made by the team led by Kelvin. In terms of the profit margin, we want to maintain 42% with a stable growth. The average gross margin with steady growth. In terms of the net profit, with management improvement structure and also lean management, we will achieve higher net profit and it will be higher than the gross margin. And our free operating cash flow was RMB 7.3 billion and CapEx is RMB 2.8 billion. So after deduction, we have almost RMB 4.5 billion positive cash flow. We have purchased [ PS4 ] in recent years as well as some other acquisition, but the operating cash flow is still positive. This is a very good position, cash position and the positive cash flow of RMB 4.5 billion. And we never have achieved this level since 2017. This is the pickup of revenue and as a CEO, I'm very happy to see the steady growth trend in this positive cash flow momentum. In addition, I want to remind you that our company is mainly on the mobile phone. acoustics and haptics through the transformation of the past few years and the changes in the external technologies. AI is actually a foundation that brought about the growth, of multiple product lines. Consumer electronics is also another case. And AI glasses will become the future demand as well. And we also announced today that we've acquired the Far East company and our equity share is about 55%. And the is on the data center. And we want to have quicker entry in the data center and CDO. And apart from this, we are also doing the liquid cooling plate. And we are still seeking the M&A opportunities. We also secured some U.S. customers in the precision mechanics this year definite can achieve 10 million to 20 million sales. So with the development from the consumer electronics to data centers to the liquid cooling and we laid a very good foundation. In addition, robotics, as mentioned by Kelvin, we are developing the direction of a very positive trend. First of all, we have acoustics and optical sensors with a precise transmission and mechanics and also heat dissipation and many products layout. And we have both connections with domestic market as well as overseas. And we want to have a comprehensive competitive advantage in this direction. In the 5 to 6 product lines, we want to at least one product line to be secured with the substantive customer. to connect with our customers. At the beginning, we only doing speaker and then expanding to the wider range and to 6 products and to robotics. So with our specialty, we also want to explore and expand on our competitiveness in other areas and a few competitive relationship with a few robot companies. And with the customers demand and with our negotiation with the customers, we gradually see the profitability from robotics in the next 5 to 8 years. I believe when the market is ramping up and our product line will be over RMB 10 billion. Of course, this is the outlook. As Kelvin said, the client and the customers have not yet established this real demand, but we want to establish a strategic layout and the plan. Once the demand arises, we can ensure our precision. Okay. And that's the summary. For me, I'm very happy to see the transformation of the company, no matter in the financial side, but also the new product lines and also technology layout. Thank you very much.

Due to time constraints, the AAC Technologies 2025 annual results presentation is now concluded, and the roadshow materials have been updated to the company's official website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for your support. See you.