Diodes Inc (DIOD) 2010 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon and welcome to Diodes Incorporated's first quarter 2010 financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. At the conclusion of today's conference call, instructions will be given for the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, Thursday, May 6, 2010.

I would now like to turn the call to Leanne Sievers of Shelton Group, the Investor Relations agency for Diodes Inc. Leeanne, please go ahead.

Good afternoon and welcome to Diodes' first quarter 2010 earnings conference call. I am Leanne Sievers, Executive Vice President of Shelton Group, Diodes' Investor Relations firm. With us today are Diodes' President and CEO, Dr. Keh-Shew Lu, Chief Financial Officer Rick White, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Mark King, and Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations, Carl Wertz.

Before I turn the call over to Dr. Lu, I would like to remind our listeners that management's prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. And management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. Therefore the Company claims the protection of the Safe Harbor for forward-looking statements that is contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ from those discussed today and therefore we refer you to a more detailed discussion of the risks and uncertainties in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In addition, any projections as to the Company's future performance represent management's estimates as of today, May 6, 2010. Diodes assumes no obligation to update these projections in the future as market conditions may or may not change. Additionally, the Company's press release and management statements during this conference call will include discussions of certain measures and financial information and GAAP and non-GAAP terms. Included in the Company's press release is a reconciliation of GAAP net income to non-GAAP adjusted net income which provides additional details.

Also throughout the Company's press release and management statements during this conference call we refer to net income attributable to common stockholders as GAAP net income.

For those of you unable to listen to the entire call at this time, a recording will be available via webcast for 60 days in the Investor Relations section of Diodes' website at www.diodes.com.

And now I'll turn the call over to Diodes' President and CEO, Dr. Keh-Shew Lu. Dr. Lu, please go ahead.

Thank you, Leanne. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. The first quarter reflects a number of significant accomplishments for Diodes, the first of which includes the accomplishment of record quarterly revenue and record gross profits. As many of you know, in the second half of 2009 we shifted from a focus on cash management back to our profitable growth strategy which is everything in our first quarter results exceeding our prior financial peaks. And to this point in the economic recovery is the distinct accomplishment compared to many other companies in our peer group.

(inaudible) in the first quarter increased 5% sequentially, in spite of first quarter typically is a [lean] and seasonally down quarter. Additionally, we are focusing continued growth momentum in the second quarter which will represent our fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth and another record quarter for the Company. Gross margin in the first quarter was 34.9% and is on par with our previous high achieved in the [fourth] quarter of 2005.

The increase in gross margin was attributable to improved product mix, resulting from stronger than expected growth. in North America and Europe. In addition to our [virtual flat] operating at near capacity, we rank (inaudible) in our assembly testing facilities. As the latest pickup (inaudible) anticipated and has outpassed our capital expenditures. But keep in mind, [styles] for activity began increasing our capital authorization in September of 2009 ahead of most of the industry in order to ramp up early and to support our future growth. Those expenditures are just now beginning to be recorded in the first quarter.

As such, we have already initiated our 2010 authorizations and currently have (inaudible) appropriate equipment committed to us thereby preventing any potential debate for many [fixtures]. This record achievement are (sic) a direct result of our consistent execution on new product in (inaudible) and the design win traction combined with our (inaudible) capacity extension, which has enabled us to gain market share as well as improve our quarter mix and (inaudible).

With that, I will turn the call over to Rick to discuss our first quarter financial results and first quarter guidance in more detail.

Thanks, Dr. Lu, and good afternoon, everyone. As Dr. Lu mentioned, revenue for the first quarter was a record $136.8 million, an increase of 75% over the $78.1 million in the first quarter of 2009 and an increase of 5% over the $130.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. Gross profit for the first quarter of 2010 was a record $47.8 million or 34.9% of revenue compared to $14.5 million or 18.6% of revenue in the first quarter of 2009 and $41.8 million or 32.1% of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009. The 280 basis point sequential increase in gross margin was primarily attributable to improved product mix that resulted from stronger than expected growth in North America and Europe, in addition to higher wafer fab loading and performance.

[Olfab], our wafer fab in Oldham, UK has gone from a utilization of less than 50% to near full utilization, achieving record output in March 2010. In addition, cross-selling of Zetex products is increasing, with Zetex sales growing in all regions.

During the quarter, our packaging capacity continued to be fully utilized with output from our China facilities at 5.2 billion units. Total operating expenses amounted to $28.9 million or 21.2% of revenue, down slightly from the 21.5% last quarter.

Looking specifically at selling, general and administrative expenses for the first quarter, SG&A was approximately $21.4 million or 15.7% of revenue compared to $20 million or 15.4% of revenue last quarter. Investment in research and development for the first quarter was $6.4 million or 4.7% of revenue, which was effectively in line on a dollar basis to the $6.8 million or 5.2% of revenue in the fourth quarter. Total other income amounted to $144,000 for the first quarter.

Looking first at interest income and expense, we had approximately $1.3 million of interest income, primarily related to our portfolio of auction rate securities. An interest expense of $2 million, primarily related to our convertible senior notes and our no net cost loan. During the first quarter of 2009, we recorded approximately $1.8 million of non-cash amortization of debt discount.

As stated on previous calls, effective January 1, 2009, US GAAP requires us to separately account for a liability and equity component of our convertible senior notes. Also included in total other income was $845,000 of foreign currency gains and a $1.8 million gain on the sale of assets. In terms of income before income taxes and noncontrolling interest, the first quarter income amounted to $19 million, which was a 66% increase over the fourth quarter of 2009 of $11.4 million, and compared to a loss of $10.3 million in the first quarter of 2009.

Turning to income taxes, our effective income tax rate in the first quarter was approximately 17.5%, which was slightly above our guidance due to better overall profitability, particularly in the higher tax jurisdictions of North America and Europe.

First quarter GAAP net income was $15 million or $0.33 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $10.8 million or negative $0.26 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2009 and net income of $14.2 million or $0.32 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2009. Tax expense in the fourth quarter of 2009 was a credit of $3.6 million or $0.08 per diluted share. The share count used to compute GAAP diluted earnings per share for the first quarter was 45.3 million shares. For the second quarter, we expect shares outstanding to be approximately 46 million.

Non-GAAP adjusted net income was $15.7 million or $0.35 per diluted share, which excluded net of tax $1.1 million of non-cash interest expense related to the amortization of debt discount on the convertible senior notes, $800,000 of non-cash acquisition-related intangible asset amortization costs and a gain of $1.2 million on the sale of assets. We have included in our earnings release, a reconciliation of GAAP net income to non-GAAP adjusted net income, which provides additional details.

Included in first quarter GAAP and non-GAAP adjusted net income was approximately $2.1 million net of tax, non-cash share-based compensation expense. Excluding this expense, both GAAP and non-GAAP adjusted diluted EPS would have increased by an additional $0.05 per diluted share.

Cash flow for the first quarter amounted to $23.9 million from operations, $5.8 million net cash flow, and $7.3 million free cash flow.

Turning to the balance sheet. At the end of the first quarter, we had $486 million in cash and short-term investments, consisting of approximately $248 million in cash and $238 million in short-term investments of par value auction rate securities. The auction rate securities which have been fully borrowed against, resulting in a related current liability no net cost loan of $238 million, can be put back to UBS AG at par on June 30, 2010 under the previously disclosed settlement.

Our working capital at quarter end was approximately $359 million and long-term debt, including the convertible senior notes which are redeemable in October 2011, was approximately $127 million carrying value.

Now turning to inventory. At the end of the first quarter, inventory was approximately $94 million or approximately $4 million higher than the fourth quarter due to an increase in raw materials. Work in process and finished goods were relatively flat compared to last quarter. Inventory days were 93, a slight increase from the 88 days in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Accounts receivable was approximately $105 million and AR days were 67. Capital expenditures were $24.6 million during the first quarter or 18% of revenue compared to 8% of revenue in the fourth quarter. Our historical pattern is to have higher capital expenditures as a percent of revenue in the first half of the year as we put assembly capacity in place to meet the normally higher growth rates in the second and third quarters. This pattern in 2010 is the same as the historical pattern but exaggerated by the reduced CapEx in 2009.

We continue to authorize CapEx at our annual model rate of between 10 and 12% of revenue to keep the growth of our packaging capacity in line with demand. Depreciation and amortization expense for the first quarter was $12.1 million.

Turning now to our outlook. As previously discussed, we expect to continue our growth momentum in the second quarter of 2010 with revenue anticipated to range between $142 million and $148 million or an increase of 4 to 8% sequentially. Additionally, we expect gross profit to increase at a rate comparable to our revenue growth. Operating expenses are anticipated to decrease slightly from the first quarter levels on a percent of revenue basis. We expect our income tax rate for the second quarter to range between 15 and 20%, due to profits in higher tax jurisdictions.

With that said, I will now turn the call over to Mark King, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. Mark.

Thank you, Rick, and good afternoon. Our record first-quarter revenue was a result of strong demand across all geographic regions and led by a resurgence in North America and Europe as well as better than normal seasonality in Asia.

Distributor inventory remained low and below normal distributor inventory levels. Global POS was up 17% and experienced solid growth in all regions. Both our Diodes- and Zetex-branded products reached record levels as we continued to capitalize on cross-selling opportunities, resulting in increased market share and existing customers, in addition to winning designs at new customers. We achieved strong momentum and design activity on our MOSFETs portfolio, SPR products and high-performance bipolar transistors as well as strong increases in analog product revenue from USB power switches and reset devices.

From an end market perspective, we saw a high level of design activity and revenue increases in industrial, consumer and communication accounts. In terms of specific end market breakouts, consumer represented 32% of revenue, computing 28%, industrial 20%, communications 17%, and automotive 3%. Asia represented 73% of total revenue, product sales increased 1.3% sequentially led by notebook, power supply and [DC fan].

Mobile phone, LCD and LED TV as well as panels were flat for the quarter while [LNB] products were down, following normal seasonal patterns. Foundry wafer sales decreased 78% quarter over quarter due mainly to planned reductions in foundry wafer sales to support internal growing demand while fab capacity is nearly full. Distributor POS grew 12.6%, despite the impact of the Chinese New Year holiday. Distributor inventory was generally low during the period at just under two months.

Design activity in Asia remained strong in the first quarter with 80 wins at 57 customers, highlighted by 14 USB switches, 11 reset ICs, eight power MOSFETs, seven SBR and five [hall] centers.

In North America, first quarter sales represented 16% of total revenue and increased 28% over the fourth quarter. OEM sales were driven by continued improvement in our industrial and communication account base. Distributor POS grew 23% while POP and inventory grew in support of the increase in POS. Distributor inventory is healthy and is positioned to support further growth in the second quarter. Our backlog was strong once again, positioning us for further growth in North America during the second quarter.

Overall, the near to mid term outlook for both OEMs and distributors remain positive. Design activity in North America was extremely strong with 133 total design wins highlighted by 17 analog, four hall centers, five LED drivers, five SBRs and 20 MOSFETs.

Sales in Europe accounted for 11% of total revenue in the quarter and increased 18% over the fourth quarter, driven primarily by strong growth in analog sales and LED drivers. This represents the third consecutive quarter of growth in Europe and confirms the ongoing recovery in the region. OEM sales grew 5% sequentially with sales to consumer accounts up 17%, sales to industrial accounts up 7%, telecom increased 52% while automotive accounts declined 13%. Distributor POS grew 31% and exceeded distributor POP. Inventory was up slightly in the quarter.

We entered the second quarter with a very strong customer backlog and expect further improvements in the second quarter. Design activity in Europe was also strong with 95 wins at 46 accounts.

Now turning to new products, during the first quarter on the discrete side, we released 43 new products consisting of 19 MOSFETs for mobile phone applications, notebook, telecom and industrial, as well as an automotive device, 12 bipolar devices comprising the first family of devices launched in the Power Di-5 package for a wide range of applications, seven SBR and Schottky devices for power supply and solar application, and five protection and application-specific products.

On the analog side, we continued to see new product revenue increase from our USB power switch family where shipments grew by 50% sequentially. We gained further traction penetrating the notebook and TV space and this growth trend is expected to continue for the rest of 2010 and will be accelerated by upcoming new product releases. Additionally, the reset devices continued to gain traction with first quarter shipments increasing 140% over the fourth quarter. The newly released APX 803, which is ideal for use in portable equipment, will further improve our [SAM].

Also in the quarter Diodes released the first in a new series of DC to DC converters, the AP 5100. This product will be complemented by additional high current asynchronous converter released in the second quarter, plus a new synchronous high current DC to DC converter currently in development and scheduled to sample in June.

For hall centers, over 70% of the new product revenue from this product segment was from notebook and cell phone markets with the remainder driven by the DC fan business in Asia. The growth in hall centers is expected to continue driven by increases in both existing products as well as release of new products.

In DVS, our product revenue growth will be driven by our new interface and bioswitches especially the new [ZX NB 4202] which is targeted for China and Japan. In terms of global design wins, in process design activity was solid and remained at high levels with wins at [163] accounts globally including 80 wins at 57 customers in Asia, 113 wins at 62 customers in North America and 95 wins at 46 accounts in Europe. We are very pleased with both the quality of the design wins and the customers we are penetrating. We are winning business in our target applications with our focus customer.

Design activity on MOSFETs has been exceptionally high, due to our aggressive new product releases and product expansion, as well as a growing product shortage in the industry that is providing additional opportunity. Designs for our USB switches and LED drivers continue to increase on the analog side with the previously mentioned MOSFET along with bipolar transistors and SBRs on the discrete side. New projects for customer-specific multi-chip devices continue to increase quarter over quarter.

In summary, our continued execution on new product initiatives and our high level of design wins will further contribute to market share gains and support our solid positioning with customers. The achievement of record results this quarter is evidence of the success that we're beginning to see from the expanded customer base we obtained through our acquisition of Zetex, which provided us with expanded technology, a larger sales footprint and broader global reach.

We enter the second quarter with strong backlog and positive momentum across all business segments and in all geographies. We remain focused on expanding our new product initiative, further penetrating the China market and improving our product mix to drive additional growth opportunities and market share gain for the remainder of the year.

With that, I will open the floor to questions.

(Operator Instructions). Tristan Gerra with Robert Baird.

Good afternoon. Could you give some specifics in terms of products helping mix in the quarter and how sustainable you believe that is?

Yes, I would say that I think it is relatively sustainable going into the third quarter. I mean, yes, going into the second quarter -- excuse me -- I think basically what we have started to do is limit our supply of our commodity devices and just moved up the food chain, moving into higher ASP or higher mix units, products within the different segments that we operate. But I think it is pretty broad-based.

I did mention that we had some improvements on our USB switch and some of those areas so that is kind of driving a better mix and some of our new products on MOSFETs are helping improve. But I think we focused on trying to limit the growth of our commodity space and trying to position products differently.

Okay, and in case maybe I missed it, what was your total sell-ins of POP sequential change for worldwide distributor in the quarter?

I think, yes, I don't have the actually percentage up. Asia was flat. Both North America and Europe, based on the numbers, were up. But POS exceeded the growth in POP significantly in the quarter.

Okay, great, and then just a last quick one. How has been the main trends in China recently including at retail?

I don't really follow the retail, but I think the demands in China actually looked good, pretty good going into the second quarter and through the year. I think everything looks relatively strong.

Great. Thank you.

Now if you consider the Chinese New Year and in 1Q actually is quite strong. In China, internal consumption you need a Chinese New Year period.

Joe Whitten with Longbow Research.

Good afternoon. First off, congratulations, particularly on the gross margin numbers and those being kind of record highs. That is my first question, actually. I wanted to hit in on the gross margin. So guidance seems to imply flat margin sequentially. I'm just trying to reconcile that with Mark's comments that maybe there's some more high mix products coming out.

So I'm just curious. Are gross margins topping out around these levels or can you potentially go higher in the future on either the strong seasonal periods or in continued mix improvements?

Hey Joe, you know our strategy always concentrates on that topline and bottom-line. We focus our strategy on profitable growth. We really concentrate more on the growth and that the gross profit follows to the topline and increase. And, therefore, we really don't intentionally just try to improve gross margin.

Now due to the -- all our operation is fully loaded, including in addition to our package and facility is fully loaded have been downward for a while. Now our wafer fab -- and both wafer fab from Kansas City and from [Zetex] acquisition, they are all fully noted. Especially like Zetex wafer fab, we have a record output in March. And Kansas City, we actually at the beginning of the year there was a lot of snow storms and bad weather, so we're originally thinking they are going to be bad. But, you know, then they catch it up in March.

And therefore those in addition to the higher GPN region like US grow 28% and Europe grows 18%. Those high gross -- those high GPN percent regions actually grow much faster. And so it gives us a surprise on the growth margin improvements and we believe the wafer fab and (inaudible) continue loaded and we believe the product mix we've been doing should be continued.

That's why we predicted, you know, it would be similar. Since you are asking are we going to be continuing gaining higher and higher, that really is not our focus. So we take opportunity to change in a product mix when opportunity is right. But we do not want to sacrifice the growth for that.

Got you and then just two quick follow-ups. I mean you said the wafer fabs, Dr. Lu, are fully utilized or were fully utilized. Is that the whole quarter or just kind of recently you are reaching those high utilization numbers?

And then, secondly, given your capital expenditure plans for the year, now that you have those positioned, how much more sales do you think the current footprint could support when you get through the current expansion plans for the year?

Okay. You know, when I say now you remember I said, we had a record output for the [Zetex] wafer fab. Therefore, if we can continue that record output, our second quarter will be a little bit more than first quarter output. Okay? And Kansas City, remember, I said January, February, we had snowstorms, bad weather and [today] our ramp up and then the March we have a very good output.

So if you look at all of those, yes, we still have some room for the wafer fab improvement. Then after that we don't put a lot of capital in the wafer fab because for the Kansas City one we do use in our wafer fab to support foundry to deduce the cost. Help the (inaudible). But it's another one that is not our focus. So you know (inaudible) just continue to move from (inaudible) business to support ourselves.

Is it possible to say what percentage of sales at each wafer fab just approximately is being used for internal consumption versus external wafer sales?

I don't think that we disclosed that number but I can tell you (inaudible) 100% use of our (inaudible). [Zetex] fab we don't do foundry.

Great. Thanks a lot and congratulations again.

Harsh Kumar with Morgan Keegan.

Congratulations. Great quarter once again. Maybe a question perhaps for Dr. Lu or Mark.

Can you guys tell us where you are seeing the strongest -- by end market, of course, and what end market are you seeing perhaps the strongest order activity going into the June quarter and maybe talk about the linearity of orders how they check out in the quarter so far?

If you look at the second quarter, I'd think it looked like most any equipment is all very strong. We do not really see up a particularly in the flow (inaudible) in equipment and for example, LED -- LCD LED TV from one of our major customers, so far they're still focused very strong.

In notebook so far this customer and our customer so far did not give us any sign of softness or anything and then you're talking about datacom.

This quarter second quarter datacom for us from what we see is quite strong, even compared with 1Q. Datacom is much stronger, like I said, above all of those and so we do not really see a much slower business.

Now for Europe, I really don't know what would be happening. So whatever my comment is more in the Asia market.

If I can cut in, you can see that by the numbers in North America and Europe that, obviously, the resurgence of the industrial and communications markets are back and so there's really been kind of an all boats rising. So the demand looks pretty strong against all segments.

In Europe, in some of our direct accounts, we are seeing a little softness in automotive and the end of last quarter. Don't know how that will play out so much in the second quarter, but actually things continue to look pretty strong in all regions.

You'll see our computer was down a little bit in the quarter and will remain down because that is a mix space thing. Motherboard at times drives some of our numbers and we are kind of a little bit of a deemphasis in there because of product mix.

But the consumer number remained very strong.

Okay, that's very helpful. Europe, I guess Europe is just going through some churning right now as we know today.

You hit operating margin, I think peak was about 16% on a non-GAAP basis. You (technical difficulties)

But guys, you had operating margin, I think peak was about 16% on a non-GAAP basis. You are doing about 14.5. How much more of a run rate there is left? Is it fair to say you can go past the 16% peak pretty easily this time around?

Are you talking about --?

Operating margin. Sorry.

So that's GPN less G&A?

Yes.

I think we will continue kind of holding our -- in our SG&A [spread] and you know when we -- when we get the more revenues. So eventually we will get to that but -- .

If you look at the model, what we've said is that (technical difficulty) grow at the same rate as the revenue. And the SG&A will grow at about half that rate. So we would expect that the operating margins would go up somewhat over time. Not immediately.

And if you go to (inaudible) model we actually -- our model is 35% GPM, 20% R&D plus SG&A in the operation of cost expense. And get to 15% like an operational margin. So we are not that far away from that. Our operational cost now is about 21%. So slightly higher.

Now if we continued growth then that percentage goes to our model, 20%.

Got it. Fair enough. Very helpful. And if I can ask one more.

A couple of the companies are talking about supply constraints. I'm seeing -- I'm asking in the products that you guys compete in, are you seeing supply constraints from your customer -- from your, I apologize, your competitors? And maybe you could talk about pricing.

Yes absolutely we are seeing constraint. There are some products that are more constrained than others. There seems to be a lot of difficulty in the MOSFET arena.

I think what we're seeing, some prices increase. We are not usually the lowest guy out there. So we are raising and looking at some of our commodity prices where we've seen some people that are a little bit more dramatic with their pricings. Their pricing might have generally been a lower than ours in the first place.

So there's definitely some opportunity to increase price and there's certainly opportunities to gain market share.

Fair enough. Thanks, guys, and congratulations. I'll get back in the queue. Thank you.

Stephen Chin with UBS.

Thank you and, also, congratulations on the record results.

First question, I just wanted to drill down a little bit more on performance in the North American and European markets. I guess just looking at the sales performance and also the gross margin performance, can we -- is it safe to assume that some of the outperformance in the North American group was due to demand for some of your higher margin, maybe higher (inaudible) parts which has analog or Zetex or some (inaudible) products? Or --.

Yes, we generally are a very positive mix focused in North America and Europe. We sell a much better mix in these two territories. We generally let our commodities get sold in Asia. So when the boats rise and when the sales go up in North America and Europe, it should be a very positive sign for our margin mix.

We keep our commodity product at a set price and we generally allow the competitors to come back up to us when the market condition gets better. So yes, our mix is much -- we have a superior mix in North America and Europe.

Okay.

Yes, you know we put the priority to support US and Europe. And that's the commodity cost constraint, the commodity product in Asia. Therefore, when this [connotes] shortages duration happen, it is a great opportunity for us to gain a market share in the US Europe area because that is the one that gives us a much better GPN percent. And constrains the commodity area, especially in Asia.

So if you look at through our speech you can see we do not really grow that much in Asia. And with that output to support US and Europe such as that, it keeps us [surprised] on the GPN percent.

One more for Mark. Mark, you mentioned some additional traction by your (inaudible) package products earlier. Is that a new trend that is emerging in your business where of those multifunction package parts are now?

We are seeing a lot of interest in consolidation. You know when units get tight, people want to [see us] make it more simple too. We are seeing just more and more interest due to size constraints and complexity of boards to combine more units into one.

And it just seems over the last two or three quarters, that the quantities of inquiries and the active projects continues to grow and we should see some positive results in that in the quarters to come.

Okay. Great. And my last question is for Rick. Rick, just given some of the fluctuations in the foreign exchange market and potential for Chinese [grown] revaluations, what kind of potential impact did that have on your business?

Well, we have looked at -- specifically if you look at the European currencies, they are weakening versus the dollar. And we've -- we basically don't think it is going to have a lot of impact on the bottom line. We have euro-based and pound-based revenue, but we also have a euro-based and pound-based cost. And so those are basically a wash. Kind of the same thing in China.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Ramesh Misra with Brigantine Advisors.

Good afternoon. First question, just a clarification, Mark. I missed end market numbers. Can I request that you repeat those please?

Let me find them. Okay, I got my papers all mixed up.

While he's looking why don't you ask the second question?

Okay. My second question is your Shanghai facility basically running fully utilized at this point. And it still takes some time to ramp up capacity over there. Where does your Q2 revenue growth come from? Is it mix-driven or is it -- is that CapEx actually beginning to have an impact already?

I think if you remembered several conference calls we have been talking about we change from cash management strategy to profitable growth strategy several conference calls ago. And actually, we detect this kind of shortage much earlier to about September last year.

So we start to authorize the capital equipment in September last year and the (technical difficulty) start to come in in 1Q and then continued since September last year. We continue to give the CapEx authorization. So actually we have the older capital equipment (inaudible) continue until August this year.

So whatever we plan to grow in 2010, each quarter, we had the capital equipment ordered and committed and they give it to us per the schedule.

So in the second quarter our ARPU will be increased and that revenue will be coming -- majority coming from more output, more demand so we [will] be using this opportunity to gain the marketshare. So product mix, if it is there, we will take opportunity, but the growth is going to come in from the support.

Okay. Got it. And then on the front end, Dr. Lu, I remembered that your Kansas City facility has more room for -- physical room for expansion. What is the situation over at your Oldham fab? Is there room for expansion over there as well?

Well in this answer from the Kansas City, even with room, the way if we need more capacity I would just convert from 5 inch to 6 inch. Okay. I would not expand it by putting more 5 inch equipment. So anymore future expansion we just put some 6 inch equipment and convert 5 inch OREO gradually to the 6 inch.

And in the Oldham fab, you know you remember in November 2008 when economy is bad, we shut down the 4 inch [9]. If you remember that's what action we took in. We took is to shut down the 4 inch 9 and so the space is still there. If needed we will authorize more 6 inch equipment and into that 4 inch wafer (inaudible) clean room.

Okay.

(multiple speakers)

Mark has that number for you.

Ramesh, 32% consumer, 28% computing, industrial 20, communications 17 and automotive 3.

Got it. Okay. In regards to -- sorry, just getting my train of thought realigned again. In regards to your current CapEx plan, how much -- what kind of a revenue run rate would that support on an annualized basis?

We -- you know.

I had to try.

Our biggest model is 10 to 12% and that's what we have been doing historically and our growth historically is 23 to 25% CAGR. Okay.

So this year in 1Q we actually authorized 18%. And so -- but again, typically, we authorize more capital at the first half than at the second half. So this year we will expect if at the high end of that 10 to 12% -- and don't forget because last year we only authorized 6%. So we might if the business continues to improve, we might authorize above 12%.

Okay, completed (inaudible) the business outlook. And so far I already authorize enough capital equipment to support for second quarter growth and third quarter growth. I am still watching it. It's the fourth quarter, there's a [threat] then I probably don't need to do anything, but if they are to continue strong I might authorize more, but I have enough time, see.

So we just take action since the last of September to predict this kind of up and fortunately we have all the equipment done up and ready to deliver to us.

Okay. And just a very final quick one, if I may? In terms of leadtimes, can you give us at least a qualitative read on where leadtimes are and how they've been trending?

The leadtimes are longer now. We've kind of pushed again. If you look at the way we are trying to drive our mix, we are definitely pushing the leadtimes out on our commodity products. We are seeing industry leadtimes continue to grow.

We like to, in our Company, try to think leadtimes are a decision rather than a set term. So we are very focused on trying to accomplish what we're trying to do. So we use our capacity to meet those goals.

So you'll see some standard products' leadtimes stretching, but I think we still have an opportunity to operate in pretty close to our normal zone.

Thanks, Mark. Very diplomatic answer, but I will take it. Thank you.

You know Mark.

Steve Smigie with Raymond James.

Great, thank you. And I will add my congratulations on this and nice numbers there. Since we were on capacity, I will just throw another question in there. You guys had some issues a number of quarters ago where you didn't have enough people. It seemed like that got fixed.

Do we also have a benefit in terms of possible output going forward as now we are several quarters down the road? Those guys were better or people are better trained. Will there be better efficiencies coming and therefore output potential is better just because the people are better trained at this point?

You have a good memory. That's good. Because yes. We do start the benefits for our operators that are getting more mature.

Okay. You know during last year we -- our output capacity was constrained by the -- manpower constrained. Not equipment capacity limited. And so we hired the people and it takes two to three months to be able to put them back to production line. And then you know, you take a while for them to be very productive.

And fortunately, I think those kind of problems are behind us now because we continue hiring people and continue training the people, continue, put it into the production line. And fortunately is, we do increase the capital -- CapEx, increase the equipment therefore we continue to need to hire more people to put in the line.

Well, our people now is really the record worker in China now.

All right. And Dr. Lu, you were one of the first to take capacity off, one of the first to add it back. So my next question is, you are increasing spending here, but it seems like the leadtimes have gone out on the ability to get new equipment. It seems like you already got everything you need in place through Q3 in terms of what you maybe have placed in the past.

So if you needed extra capacity for Q4, I mean do you have to sort of start ordering now or how is that working? Does your equipment not have leadtimes and the other equipment does?

I just authorized another chunk of equipment, okay, out and tried to participate. Maybe needed for 4Q. Now I gamble with that because if 4Q turns out to be cyclical, if you remember our cycle typically 4Q is (inaudible) from 3Q [cyclically].

And so if that is the case, our equipment might be just excess capacity for us for the future goal. But if, you know, fortunately, the fourth quarters start to continue to grow then we will be able to take that capability to get enough market share. Therefore I am a little bit bullish so we start authorizing equipment for the fourth quarter growth.

But after the third quarter, we have all the equipment committed to us.

Right. That should be a good gamble. Like you said all you have to do is capture more market share.

So my other question, well, I had two more actually. One was just on the fabs. What end markets are you primarily gaining traction in there? Was it computing and TVs or is there other stuff?

I think -- you know, I mentioned to you in Asia almost all the [cyclical] is going up quite strong. We're gaining market share from, like I mentioned, LCD LED TV and set-top box and cell phone.

Now we do intentionally in a constraint of commodity pull out in the motherboard area. You know motherboard typically is very commodity type of product and so we constrained that area. So we might lose the market share in that area in the US and Europe since that growth is industrial and, you know, all this.

So I think I won't just say some (inaudible) and equipment. We control our growth actually. Okay.

In the area we have a much better product portfolio and that's the one we want to grow and we would put more capacity in that area for the commodity which we know the growth margin is not as good. And we just convert capacity to outside that area to support the other area. So you look at -- for us older end equipment is (inaudible). But for title alone we selected to grow one area instead of the other one.

Okay. And the last question just if I ever thought I just -- on the TVs it got beat down pretty bad as we went into the downturn. It seemed like it came back fairly strongly and has continued to be, I think, fairly healthy over the last several quarters.

Any feeling that maybe that is getting overheated? Too many TVs have been sold out there, too much penetration, or is it in China, for example, such a growth market you have multiple TVs for people or could can ship into business in addition to individuals? Just any sense on the TV market actually. Because it seems like it has been going strong for some time now.

It's going strong and it is actually getting stronger. And it's very surprised and for a lot of people too. How can they continue strong?

One thing I want to point out is the China economic is quite heated up. They are able to compete -- accomplish 8% GDP and now they are talking about 9 or 10% GDP this year. So they continue very strong.

Now you are going to say, well, how do people have the money to buy. Very surprised is because they were shortage in that area because the government started to do the minimum wage. It was surprised the salary increase in the China area is getting stronger and higher and higher. People are actually getting richer and richer especially the -- we call in the middle, middle laborer of the people. Our engineer and all engineer managers, they all get quite good a raise.

And so and the [general] market is very hot so they don't have the unemployment rate like what we have in the US and so people have the money to buy. They get -- they spend the money.

Great. Thanks very much.

Kevin Cassidy with Thomas Weisel.

Kevin Cassidy here from Thomas Weisel. We were just wondering, you had mentioned about in the inventory that raw materials increased. Has there been a cost increase in any of your raw materials?

Well, if you see the cost like, for example, the gold wire. You know gold had been increased, but fortunately we started to take action to convert some of the gold product to the copper product. Now some raw materials increased, yes, but because of the shortage, but we kind of take action.

That is why we are (inaudible) and you know like we know they are going to wait for shortage. We order wafer ahead of time. Now we have -- we have to now pick up wafers so we can continue our growth.

So to answer your question, yes, we see some building material increase, but by changing the product mix you can see we actually can improve our GPN percent.

I see so you haven't had the issue of trying to pass along any cost increase?

Yes, clearly, we are trying to pass along some price increases on our lower value device, okay, where there's not as much room. But what we're really trying to do is sell different products where those impacts would be -- almost no impact on them. (multiple speakers)

We changed the product mix.

I see, okay.

[To strengthen] our commodity product and try to focus more on the high GPM type of the product.

Okay and do you think that because you are coming in and helping the customers out on these higher GP products that you'll be able to keep that in, I guess, if this market slows down?

I hope so.

Yes. Great, thanks for taking my questions.

Brian Piccioni with BMO Capital Markets.

Yes, congratulations as well. Most of my questions as you can imagine have been asked and answered. You know, it's a minor detail to your business but many other companies that are serving the automotive space have noticed a sharp rebound. And I understand that, of course, in your business it's still a very small component of revenues. Any sense what is going on there?

I think it is just customer mix on those. I think we know in our business I think there was just a couple of key designs we had may not have been running last quarter and so far. And I think that is why we have a drop. And that was specifically on our OEM side.

So I don't think there's anything, any big change or says that we're missing anything. When you have got a small number, a small percentage of your sales in one area, then if one of your customers isn't clicking on one of their projects, it can change your mix.

Right. And you know, this might sound like sort of a negative question but it is not intended to be. Many companies seem to be claiming growth in market share these days, and you know, you would obviously have better visibility and especially with your acquisition of Zetex and the cross-selling opportunities because it is characteristically different.

What does the competitive environment look like right now for you guys?

I mean, I think there's always a competitiveness for sockets. I think right now, I think the competitive -- there's really not a significant price-competitive market because people are constrained and everybody in these better times has a little bit more patience with price.

But I mean, clearly, we all have the same objectives that are two and three years long. So we all have the same customers and so forth.

So I think that it's a very competitive market. I think we are positioned with a lot of product and a lot of segments and a lot of good product that [will] offer very significant opportunities to our customer base. So I think we are positioned competitively in all of our segments.

And the evidence of that is we are now in the record revenue in 1Q. And if you look at our guidance, we are going to continue setting the new revenue record. And so if you look at our competitor, I don't think any probably -- I don't see that many companies are compared to (inaudible) have already setting a new revenue record.

And so I think we feel very good and we feel very comfortable on our market position. And we believe we are well positioned ourselves for continued gaining market share. Continue setting the revenue record.

And we have run out of time for questions today. I would now like to turn the call back over to Dr. Lu for any closing remarks.

Thank you for your participation today and, Operator, you may now disconnect.