IQE plc (IQE) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, this afternoon, this evening. If you are live with us, thank you for taking your time to stay with us. If you watch or listen to our broadcast afterwards, thank you also for being part of this and taking your time to listen to us. We are here to talk about our half year result for 2023. First of all, let me take you back in May and remind you the context in which we spoke back then. The industry as a whole is experiencing a downturn, which we believe is temporary, and reason of that downturn has mainly been about high level of inventory in the supply chain that led our customers to not continue to place purchase orders. We are also seeing an economic downturn with inflationary situations and rising energy cost. All of this coming against a backdrop of worsening geopolitical situations that has led to a defragmentation of the supply chain. These conditions have persisted in our business in the first half. However, it is also important to keep in mind that the industry we are in has become vital to the world economy and, frankly, to everybody's life. Therefore, it is an industry that is very, very important and it is also an industry that is poised to grow. Analysts forecast the semiconductor industry to grow to $1 trillion business by 2030 and within the same growth, I believe Compound has forecast us to grow even faster. So we have a fantastic market ahead of us, we have growth opportunities. Despite all those cyclical downturn that we see, we're remaining optimistic. So against that challenging backdrop, IQE team has delivered GBP 52 million of revenue in this first half, in line with our revised market guidance. And it is important to note that within that performance even though it is a lower revenue year-on-year, we have retained our customer base and navigating to the industry as we see recovery happening. So what are we seeing in the second half? We are seeing the downturn stabilizing. We're also seeing pockets of recovery and we expect further improvement going into 2024. For instance, some wireless markets have now started to bounce back and I'm pleased to say that IQE has secured design wins with multiple large customers to deliver wireless products and WiFi into China and India smartphone markets. We are also seeing data center demand coming back led by the growth in AI applications and there to, IQE has begun customer qualifications for high speed data center application with our next generation VCSELs to capture the growth in the AI market that you all know will require tremendous amount of hardware to serve applications like ChatGPT and the like. Now it is important as we focus in the second half for me to give you a line of sight on what our priorities are. For the rest of the year, we are focusing on 3 key priorities. One, we need to continue to manage the temporary downturn. What does that mean? It means being fiscally responsible while continuing to invest for growth. I'll talk about it in a minute. Second, the market is growing, as I said, down the road. It is important that we position the company with the right investment in line with our strategy and our customers' demand. Third priority, we need to improve our short-term and long-term profitability to deliver shareholder returns. I'll talk to you in detail about those 3 priorities. But let me pass you on to Neil, who's going to run us through the numbers for the first half. Thank you.

Thank you, Americo, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us for our first half results announcement. I'll now take you through our first half numbers. First half performance has been impacted by a challenging macroeconomic environment and a temporary semiconductor industry downturn. Reported revenue of GBP 52 million, down 40% year-on-year is in line with our revised market guidance and reflects the challenging market dynamics experienced in the first half. On a constant currency basis, which takes account of the fact that the majority of our revenue is earned in U.S. dollars, revenue is down 43% year-on-year. Reduction in customer volumes and revenue experienced in the first half has adversely impacted on profitability. Under-utilization of capacity, particularly in our Wireless business, has contributed to a loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of GBP 7.9 million with decisive action, which I'll talk about in greater detail later, being taken to manage costs in order to deliver immediate efficiencies and longer-term margin benefits. Adjusted loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of GBP 5.7 million excludes the impact of certain restructuring costs, cost associated with the Executive Director changes and share-based payment charges. At the reported loss before interest and tax level, noncash depreciation and amortization charges of GBP 11.7 million increased the loss to GBP 19.6 million. Despite these challenging trading conditions, operating cash flow has remained positive in the first half benefiting from careful management of working capital, which has contributed to an adjusted net funds position of GBP 5.3 million. The adjusted net funds position, which excludes lease liabilities and fair value gains on derivative instruments, includes the impact of the equity fund raise completed in May where the group successfully raised net proceeds of GBP 29.7 million alongside the refinancing of its $35 million revolving credit facility with its bankers HSBC. In order to strengthen the balance sheet and underpin strategic investment in our GaN Power related capabilities. If I look at the results in a little bit more detail considering the 2 group's most significant business segments, Wireless and Photonics. If we look at the Wireless business unit first, which includes our gallium arsenide and gallium nitride businesses, the first half has been challenging with reported revenue of GBP 22.4 million, down 52% year-on-year. Looking at the left hand side of the screen, our gallium arsenide business or GaAS business, which relates to material used in mobile phone handsets and WiFi routers, has been adversely impacted by a combination of weakness in global handset demand and buildup of inventory in supply chains, which Americo touched on earlier. This impact has been significant at the premium end of the market of 5G and WiFi 6 devices where IQE has strong exposure. On a more positive note, we're beginning to see the downturn in gallium arsenide customer demand stabilize whilst design wins with multiple customers that leverage our partnership with a major Taiwanese foundry deliver wireless products to leading China cellular and WiFi suppliers for a growing Chinese and Indian smartphone market provide optimism for improvement in the latter part of 2023 and into 2024. Our gallium nitride business or GaN business, which today is primarily focused on GaN RF materials which are used in communication networks such as 5G base stations and for aerospace and security related applications, has been adversely impacted by the slowdown in global 5G infrastructure rollouts. This has resulted in a 15% year-on-year reduction in first half revenue to GBP 9.9 million. But let's not confuse GaN RF with GaN Power where we see tremendous growth opportunities to enable us to diversify our business. In the first half of the year, we continued to invest for growth in our GaN Power capabilities with investment in technology and manufacturing capacity to meet customer R&D demands where I'm pleased to be able to confirm material sampling that started with 2 new GaN Power customers. If I turn to our Photonics business unit, the market dynamics experienced within the 3 key product groups have been different. The suppressed VCSEL and indium phosphide demand has been partially offset by strong and pleasing performance in our infrared business. We've maintained our customer share in the 3D sensing market for VCSELs. VCSELs are Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers that are used for facial recognition applications in certain mobile handsets where we remain well placed to benefit from any future growth in volume by supply contracts with 2 of the major supply chain chip vendors. The reduction in reported VCSEL revenue down 49% to GBP 8.8 million primarily reflects the weakness in global handset demand and the buildup of inventory in supply chains, something that has also impacted our wireless gallium arsenide business. Bright spots for our VCSEL business include the positive progress that has been made with customer sampling and qualification, the next-generation VCSELs to enable and support growth in artificial intelligence markets and the initial progress that has been made with a major customer for the supply of automotive grade LiDAR VCSELs. Indium phosphide, a key material used in fiber optic networks for data communications, has experienced a 50% decline year-on-year. The decline has been driven by an Asian market slowdown in telecom infrastructure programs and has adversely impacted both demand and customer volume. InfraRed; the part of our business that supplies material for sensing, aerospace and security related applications; has performed strongly reflecting a combination of greater platform penetration in sensing applications and strong performance with customers in the aerospace and security sectors where IQE continues to benefit from a number of multiyear commercial arrangements. Our CMOS business, smaller in scale than either the Wireless or Photonics, is focused on the integration of compound semiconductors on silicon. The business has performed well in the first half of the year with revenue up 43% year-on-year to GBP 1.6 million benefiting from growth in silicon-based switches primarily for power control applications. Looking at how the reduction in first half revenue flows through to profitability, you can see the adverse impact that this has had in the first half of the year with an adjusted loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of GBP 5.7 million. This loss principally reflects the operating leverage within the business, but the level of fixed costs associated with our fabs and the need to maintain underutilized capacity for future growth has had a disproportionately adverse impact on first half profitability given the significant reductions in revenue and customer volumes. Despite this, we've taken swift and decisive cost action across the business. Utilization of manufacturing assets and reactors has been optimized, an action that has resulted in the idling of certain assets and manufacturing capacity to align with the lower volumes and save cost, headcount reductions delivering approximately 10% or GBP 4 million of underlying in-year labor cost savings have been implemented whilst retaining the key skills required for growth and reductions in nonlabor costs targeted to deliver greater than 20% in-year savings across a range of manufacturing and SG&A costs have also been implemented. As we look forward, strong progress also continues to be made to optimize the group's manufacturing footprint. Americo touched on the consolidation of the group's U.S. MBE activities and closure of the Pennsylvania site, which remains on track for completion in H1 2024. Consolidation of the group's U.S. MBE activities will deliver a structural reduction in operating leverage, reduce cost within the business and improve longer-term margin and profitability. For the reported loss after tax level, noncash depreciation and amortization charges totaled GBP 11.8 million in the first half, restructuring costs relating to a combination of the headcount actions implemented to manage the current downturn, executive change costs and related costs associated with the consolidation of the group's U.S. MBE activities totaled GBP 1.7 million with share-based payment, interest and tax charges totaling GBP 2.2 million. As we navigate the temporary downturn, cost has not been the only area of focus in the business. The business has taken in combination with the equity fund raise and bank refinancing completed in May actions to carefully manage working capital, which has released nearly GBP 9.7 million of cash to the business in the first half. Continuing the cash theme. The group closed the first half with adjusted net funds, which excludes lease liabilities and gains on derivative financial instruments of GBP 5.3 million. The net funds position includes the impact of the equity fund raise completed in May where the group successfully raised net proceeds of GBP 29.7 million and refinanced its $35 million revolving credit facility with its bankers HSBC. The equity fund raise and refinancing of bank facilities have been completed to strengthen the balance sheet and underpin strategic investment in GaN Power related capabilities as we move forward. Working capital has been managed carefully. Actions targeted to optimize inventory and reduce customer receivables have contributed to the release of nearly GBP 9.7 million of cash into the business whilst the pace of investment into our IT transformation program has slowed with a 25% year-on-year reduction in cash expenditure. Whilst we've diligently managed the cash position of the business, we continue to invest for the future targeting capital investment and investment in technology assets to accelerate our diversification strategy into GaN Power and for the business to emerge stronger and more resilient in the current temporary market downturn. Looking to the outlook for 2023. The current temporary semiconductor industry downturn is stabilizing with continued pockets of recovery expected in H2 2023 albeit more slowly than anticipated at the time of the full year 2022 results with further improvement expected into 2024. Low visibility in customer orders and high levels of inventory in the supply chain impact the range of revenue outcomes for the full year. The group anticipates double-digit revenue growth in H2 versus H1 '23 and expects to be profitable at an adjusted EBITDA level for the full year. I'll now hand back to Americo.

Thank you, Neil. As you heard from Neil, we are experiencing high level of inventory combined with low visibility from our customers. As a result, it's an absolute priority for us to build a resilient business that can capture growth, deliver profitability and in which we minimize the impact of downward [ signs ]. This is exactly our diversification strategy that we have laid out and therefore, we need to do 1 thing is accelerate our diversification strategy. As I said earlier before Neil took us through the numbers, we have 3 key priorities for the second half of this year and all these are very, very important building blocks towards our 2027 targets of delivering 3x revenue. First, managing this current downturn. As you heard, we took decisive cost actions to make sure that we have the balance sheet and maintain our balance sheet that will enable us to run the business while we are able to fund the growth for the new markets that we operate in. Neil has given details on some of those key actions and we will continue to cost optimize our operations to be fiscally responsible by not only cost management, but also efficiencies improvement in our operations. Second priority is to continue our investment in a responsible way. As I said back in May, we are going to implement a market-led R&D meaning we're going to align our R&D with the market with the key customers to make sure that we don't create technology that don't lead to business. Instead, we optimize our R&D funding, we minimize gap between what we do and what our customers want and we accelerate time to market. So this is what we are focusing on and I'm pleased to say that earlier this year we announced our investment in GaN Power electronics, which is a significant market, and I'm happy to announce that we have commenced something with 2 customers for GaN power electronics 650 volt devices and this is the outcome of our strategy and we are very proud of that progress so far. We have also begun production of second-generation high performance VCSEL, which is used in consumer mobile phones for sensing applications. Our R&D investment also led us to an engagement in the qualification process to supply automotive LiDAR to a customer and it's critical that we continue to invest in those markets. As we said, GaN Power electronics is today's market for us and we are also investing in micro LED technologies and customer engagement and we have seen an announcement in very, very nice and cutting edge devices and also formation of new ecosystem, which is very important for us as AP suppliers. So our investment will significantly expand IQE customer pipeline and we believe our technology is the best in the industry combined with our global footprint if we just expand our addressable market. So we are very, very proud of our investment for growth and we stay focused on the key strategic market that will deliver growth and profitability for us. Talking about profitability. It is important that we take actions to deliver the margins that the industry is expecting. In addition to current actions taken in managing cost, we are also taking strategic actions to optimize our operations while maintaining our global position. As I said, IQE is the only epitaxi supplier that has a global footprint and that is absolutely critical in today's global supply chain fragmentation. As we migrate from a global supply chain to a regional supply chain, IQE is well positioned to service customers on all 3 major continents. We have large scale operations in Asia, in the U.K. and in the U.S. But it is important to continuously optimize our footprint for cost reasons while we scale. So such actions have been taken before. As you will remember, we have already taken action by closing our Singapore site, which was subscale. We are on track with our consolidation of our Pennsylvania operations into North Carolina to create a very large MBE mega foundry. We will continue to optimize our footprint as we go to lower the cost of our operation and deliver improved profitability. To conclude, let me say that despite the temporary downturn we have talked about, we are still focused on delivering the goals that we set out last year during our Capital Markets Day. Let me remind you that the global epitaxi market is expected to grow by 22% CAGR by 2027, which represent a large market of about [ GBP 4.5 billion ]. And IQE has a healthy and increasingly diverse customer pipeline to capture new markets into the epitaxi space. We have great technology road map, which is aligned to multiple strategic growth market and will deliver value to our customers. If you combine that with our global footprint and our scale, we have all the assets necessary to serve our customers in the evolving supply chain. That gives me confidence to reaffirm our focus on delivering 3x revenue and 30% EBITDA margins by 2027. Now let me hand it to the operator and we look forward to taking your questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Americo. And just a quick reminder for those on the webcast. If you'd like to ask a question, please click on the questions icon at the bottom of your screen and type your question in. I'll now hand it over to Chloe to moderate the Q&A. Over to you, Chloe.

We have a number of questions come through on the webcast. The first is the micro LED market looks to be a great opportunity for IQE. Can you comment on any new partnerships? Is progress in this market going as expected?

Thank you for the question. Micro LED is one of our growth market as we have identified, [indiscernible] is today's market with micro LED is evolving. We have seen some nice products being announced, the ecosystem being informed. As you know, we are working with technology partners and also with foundry partners as well as end customers. So good progress has been made. We will continue to push forward as this is a market that we expect would revolutionize the entire display business down the road. So very good progress there from IQE.

The next question is around where are you on the appointment of a new CFO?

We have started back then the worldwide search for a CFO. I'm happy to report that we have now a short list of very, very good and actually great candidates that we are working through and we are doing our best to get that process to conclusion as quickly as we can. But it's important for me to find the right profile to grow the business.

So what progress is being made on applying for funds from the CHIPS Act in the U.S. and where are you with applying for funds from the U.K. Semiconductor Strategy announced earlier this year?

Very good question. CHIPS Act first. As you know, we operate in the U.S. We have large-scale operations and the U.S. is actually our largest market so we are involved in the CHIPS Act funding. The application process are ongoing. It is a fairly complex process actually, but we are doing the right things. Some of the applications are on our own, some are made with our partners in the industry. So we will continue to work with the right agencies in the U.S. to secure the right funds for IQE as soon as we can. As far as the U.K. is concerned, we are happy to see the strategy being announced first of all. And then there's a fund allocated, which is not a large amount, but let's use the fund as available to begin with. There's a panel that is formed, an advisory panel have been invited to be part of the panel which is good. Now I have to be part of the solution, okay? I can't just sit on the side, I need to be part of the solution. And we have had our first meeting, a very productive meeting with the panelists. Actually, I'm pretty pleased at what we are doing there. The challenge obviously is to get it as quickly as we can from strategy and a panel, which is good progress, to making the funds available to the industry, right? So that's what we are pushing for and I hope to see progress as quickly as possible.

You refer to broadening our market penetration into the China wireless market. But can you elaborate on the implications for IQE on the relationship between the U.K. government and China?

That's an interesting one. How would I put it? I've seen those geopolitical plays in my previous life in the silicon side in the U.S. We have to focus on the business, right? We are a global business in an industry that is very important to the world as I said earlier and China markets, India markets are very large markets for us as well as the U.S. and Europe. So we will work diligently with our customers to serve these markets. We cannot control all the elements so I don't have -- I have to stay focused on running the business.

So there is a lot of noise out there about China and Apple. However, when you look into it, you can start to see the re-emergence of Huawei and other Chinese OEMs. This market is not just in China, but other larger markets like India. On the wireless side, can you explain how IQE can thrive both in the East and West and why the current embargoes are not an impediment to that?

So it's important to understand where we sit in the ecosystem, right? We have a semiconductor manufacturing services company like the silicon companies are. So we provide epitaxi wafers for a broad range of product, for a broad range of customers. What is important to understand is where things are manufactured. I talked earlier about our global footprint and it is very important for the others to understand how strategic that asset is because we are able to manufacture products in 3 different continents and therefore, be a lot more I would say resilient to export control regulations, right? That's what it is at the end of the day. So we are able to serve our customers through our Taiwan operations, U.K. operations, U.S. Our technology is -- our innovation is made in the U.K. So we are able to anticipate some of those even though we don't know what governments will do at the end of the day. We can only take as many options as possible in our strategies working for our customers. But rest assured that we will go after the global markets for the benefits of our customers and our shareholders.

You talked a lot about the outsourcing opportunity and the potential for some significant customer wins there. When should we be expecting further announcements around this?

Whenever we are ready to make it.

We have a couple more questions coming in. It is clearly essential to see the diversification away from being so reliant on handset volumes. You talk about a number of qualifications and sampling around data centers and auto use cases leveraging GaN and VCSEL expertise. If the qualifications go well and end markets don't worsen, are these 2024 volume opportunities or are they more longer term?

We work with our customers to accelerate the product ramp. Some of those products are 2024, some of them are beyond. When you look at qualification cycles for consumer products, they are usually reasonably shorter. When you look at qualification time for automotive grade products, they are a bit longer. So we will time those ramps based on the type of markets we are after, but our goal is to ramp volume as quickly as possible.

Our next question is what is your epiwafer market share in China today and where do you think that could go?

We don't disclose our market share at this point, but I think we would like to position ourselves to lead the market wherever we go play. So expect us to take a little position.

Thank you very much. I don't believe there are any further questions coming through on the webcast. So I'll just hand back to Americo now for some closing remarks.

Well, I want to thank the audience and very good questions. As I said earlier and Neil reiterated that this is the downturn that we are managing to. It's not new to the industry. We are not immune to it. We need to learn from it and we have taken actions to be fiscally responsible during this time. But it's important also that we put in place -- we continue to put in place the building blocks to capture the growth of the business. As I said, semiconductor will grow. It's not the question of if, it's how fast. The cycles will exist and it's how we build a resilient business, how we diversify our business and how we continue to create and capture value for our shareholders and deliver products for our customers. So that's what our focus are. Thank you very much.