Fabrinet (FN) 2018 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Fabrinet's financial results conference call for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Garo Toomajanian, Investor Relations.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss Fabrinet's financial and operating results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018, which ended December 29, 2017. With me on the call today are Tom Mitchell, founder and Executive Chairman; Seamus Grady, Chief Executive Officer; and TS Ng, Fabrinet's Chief Financial Officer.

This call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on the Investors section of our website located at investor.fabrinet.com. Please refer to our website for important information, including our earnings press release and investor presentation, which includes a GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation.

I would like to remind you that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements about the future financial performance of the company. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's current expectations. These statements reflect our opinions only as of the date of this presentation, and we undertake no obligation to revise them in light of new information or future events, except as required by law. For a description of the risk factors that may affect our results, please refer to our recent SEC filings, in particular, the section captioned Risk Factors in our Form 10-Q filed on November 7, 2017.

We will begin the call with remarks from Tom, Seamus and TS, followed by time for questions. I would now like to turn the call over to Fabrinet's Executive Chairman, Tom Mitchell. Tom?

Thank you, Garo, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased with our second quarter results and believe our new programs and diversification will continue to contribute to the success in the future.

I'd like now to turn the call over to Seamus for his remarks.

Thank you, Tom, and good afternoon, everyone. I spent my first 4 months at Fabrinet meeting with customers and employees, and I'm even more enthusiastic about the quality of our business and the strength of our customer relationships than when I spoke with you a few months ago. Our experience and reputation as a technology-driven manufacturer positions us uniquely in the marketplace.

Since our founding, we have had a strong presence in optical communications, and I'm looking forward to the continued expansion of our business in this dynamic market. At the same time, I believe we can increasingly leverage our expertise in precision manufacturing and advanced packaging to other markets that are adjacent to the optical communications market. We already have a strong presence in the industrial laser, automotive and sensor markets, and we remain committed to our longer-term target revenue mix of 50% of our business coming from optical communications and 50% from other markets, mainly industrials, automotive and medical.

While we continue to make steady progress with organic growth, we also believe that M&A may be an effective way to accelerate this mix shift. To be clear, however, the process of identifying and evaluating possible business combinations could be lengthy as we look for candidates that have the right balance of new market opportunities, reliable business trends, competitive margins and strong reputations. We believe that this more diverse revenue mix will drive more balanced revenue and profitability growth over the longer term.

Looking at our fiscal second quarter in more detail, we're pleased to report revenue of $337 million and non-GAAP EPS of $0.72 per diluted share, both of which were above the high end of our guidance ranges. This performance reflects the combination of continued weakness in the optical communications market, growth in our non-communications business and a meaningful contribution from new business. In fact, this new business represented 35% of our overall revenue in the second quarter and at $119 million was consistent with our first quarter performance.

While we don't break out financials by facility, we continue to see Fabrinet West and Fabrinet U.K. contributing to our overall growth. At the same time, while still relatively small, we are excited by the ramp in production at our new campus in Chonburi.

Looking ahead to the third quarter, while we expect our revenue to decline on a sequential basis, we expect the full impact of cost-saving measures taken in Q2 and further efficiencies to produce non-GAAP EPS which is roughly flat sequentially despite an anticipated decrease in revenue.

In summary, I am pleased that we exceeded our revenue and profitability expectations for the second quarter. More importantly, I believe that Fabrinet remains uniquely positioned to generate profitable growth over the long term as we leverage our manufacturing expertise both within the optical communications market and in other markets for our know-how and drive a compelling value position for our customers.

Now let me turn the call over to TS to discuss the details of our second quarter performance and our outlook. TS?

Thank you, Seamus. I will provide you in more details on our performance by end market and our financial results in Q2 for fiscal year 2018 as well as our guidance for Q3.

Total revenue in the quarter was $337.1 million, a decrease of 4% from a year ago but above our guidance range. Non-GAAP net income was $0.72 per share compared to $0.91 per share in the same quarter a year ago.

In the second quarter, we experienced a $1.3 million or $0.04 per share foreign exchange headwind compared to $1.9 million or $0.05 tailwind in the quarter a year ago. Despite this foreign exchange headwind, non-GAAP net income per share still exceeded the upper end of our guidance range.

As Seamus mentioned, non-optical communication revenue continued to grow but did not quite offset decline in optical communication revenue. Optical communication represented 72% of total revenue compared to 77% in the first quarter, and non-optical increased to 28% of total revenue. Within optical, telecom was again 60% while datacom was 40%.

Reflecting the overall decline in optical revenue, 100-gig solution was $133 million compared to $157 million in the first quarter, while 400-gig solution was roughly flat at $16 million.

Revenue from QSFP28 transceivers was $42 million compared with $48 million in the first quarter as a number of customers continued to transition to low-cost CWDM4 variance. Silicon photonic revenue was $74 million, down slightly from $77 million in Q1.

Turning to our non-optical communications performance. We have a strong overall performance as anticipated, with record revenues of $95.2 million. Revenue from industry laser was a record $43 million, up 15% from Q1 and 20% from a year ago. Automotive revenue was also a quarterly record at nearly $26 million, increased 20% from Q1 and 18% from a year ago. Sensors revenue was stable at approximately $4 million. Other revenue was $73 million, up 20% from Q1 and 44% from a year ago, with contribution from Fabrinet West and Fabrinet U.K.

New business is an important contributor to our overall revenue. In Q2, new business revenue was $119 million, consistent with the first quarter and represented 35% of total revenue.

Now turning to the details of our P&L. A reconciliation on GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in our earnings press release and investor presentation, which you can find on our website.

Non-GAAP gross margin in the second quarter was 11.6%, slightly lower than Q1 and below our target range of 12% to 12.5%, primarily due to the decrease in revenue as well as the continued strengthening of the Thai baht from the first quarter. We continue to expect cost-cutting measures taken earlier in the quarter and improved efficiency to drive improved gross margin in the second half of the year.

Non-GAAP operating income in the second quarter was $30 million, and operating margin was 8.9%, flat from Q1, due primarily to tight controls on non-GAAP operating expenses, including savings from the reduction in workforce that we made earlier in the quarter.

Taxes in the quarter were a net expense of $1.6 million, and our normalized effective tax rate was 6.3%, consistent with Q1 and in line with our expected range of 6% to 7%. We continue to anticipate an effective tax rate of 6% to 7% for fiscal year 2018.

Non-GAAP net income was $27.3 million in the second quarter or $0.72 per diluted share compared to $0.75 in Q1 and $0.91 a year ago. On a GAAP basis, which includes share-based compensation expenses, costs related to the reduction in force we announced last quarter, amortization of debt issuing costs and costs related to the completion of our CEO search, net income for the second quarter was $19.3 million or $0.51 per diluted share compared with $25.3 million or $0.65 per diluted share in the second quarter of fiscal year 2017.

As I mentioned earlier, we experienced a $1.3 million or $0.04 per share negative impact from the stronger Thai baht on our GAAP and non-GAAP bottom line results for the second quarter.

Moving on to the balance sheet and cash flow statement. At the end of the second quarter, cash and investments were $287.7 million. This represents an increase of approximately $21 million from the end of the first quarter, primarily from the operating cash flow of $40.2 million, offset by CapEx of $10.2 million and share repurchases of $10 million. We expect CapEx in FY '18, all of which is maintenance CapEx, to be approximately $35 million.

During the second quarter, we were active in our share repurchase program and bought back approximately 315,000 shares at an average price of $31.36 per share. Our Board of Directors has doubled the size of our share repurchase program from $30 million to $60 million. As a result, $50 million now remain in our authorization, and we expect to remain active with the buyback in the third quarter.

I would now like to discuss guidance for the third quarter. We expect revenue to decline in Q3. From a profitability perspective, we expect to see more meaningful benefit from the cost reduction we made earlier in the year and other efficiency combined to produce non-GAAP EPS that is roughly flat sequentially despite an expected dip in revenue.

Therefore, for the third quarter of fiscal 2018, we expect revenue of between $316 million and $324 million. We anticipate non-GAAP net income per share in the third quarter to be in the range of $0.70 to $0.73 and GAAP net income per share of $0.50 to $0.53 based on approximately 37.9 million fully diluted shares outstanding.

In summary, we expect the full impact of cost-saving measures to offset some of the top line impact, highlighting the flexibility of our operating model. Importantly, we continue to be well positioned to benefit from improved market trends and increase diversification as we look ahead.

Operator, we would now like to open the call for questions.

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Patrick Newton with Stifel.

I guess jumping right in on the guidance, TS, you talked about cost-cutting initiatives, but I'm curious if you have any directional guidance you can provide us on gross margin, whether it's going to be up, down or flat. And then as we look at your various segments sequentially, specifically focusing on optical, is there an area whether telecom or datacom that sequentially should have a larger sequential downtick?

Patrick, this is TS. So if you look at the implied EPS, $0.70 to $0.73 and go backwards, I think we project a slight improvement in the gross margin despite the lower revenue. And again, a lot of these have come from the cost savings, from the reduction in cost we took in November. Now in terms of mix, we foresee most of the downturn from the optical communications area. And then for the non-communication side of the equation, we believe you'll be flat or slightly -- sequentially slightly lower. Is that helpful?

That's very helpful. And I guess if we focus on that, the laser sensors and other revenue was very impressive. Historically, you have a large customer in your fiber lasers that when they have a product refresh, you tend to get a quarter or 2 of an impact. And then historically, there hasn't been much follow-through from there. We're hearing from our own checks that it might be different this time. I'm curious what you're seeing on that laser business that might make you think that, perhaps, it's a little bit more sustainable from a growth perspective this time around.

Yes, again, Patrick, we have about 6 or 7 customers producing laser product. So again, sometimes, one up, one down. And suffice to say that, overall, we see again pretty strong in that area. So again, fiber laser is only for 1 or 2 customers, and the rest of the customer in general trend look pretty good.

Great. And just one more, if I may, I guess, for either Seamus or for TS is if we kind of dive into the QSFP28 trends, you have the LR4 to CWDM4 transition and we have some normal seasonality in the March quarter. I'm curious, if we try to ignore the seasonality, do you believe that this transition from LR4 to CWDM4 is largely behind your customers?

Not 100% behind yet. We are very happy with the result on the RAM or the CWDM4. And suffice to say that some of our customers are still shipping LR4 and PSM4 but they're ramping down. So yes, I mean, the story for FY 2019, will be all -- probably all CWDM4.

And our next question comes from the line of Troy Jensen with Piper Jaffray.

So Seamus, for you, I mean, you touched on M&A here, so I'd just be curious to know if your thoughts are small tuck-in deals or if you look to do anything larger, more transformative.

So we're pretty much open for both. As you've seen from our results, our balance sheet remains pretty strong. We have a pretty sizable nest egg of cash, so I think we're well positioned to really tuck at any opportunity that comes our way, either small or like you said, tuck-in acquisitions or larger deals. So we're really looking to add capability, not just add revenue. We want to add capability that's complementary to what we do. We're a technology-focused contract manufacturer. We want to keep it that way. So we're really looking to add business that diversifies, improves our mix, but it's also complementary to the technology we have today. So we're really open to both smaller deals and larger deals.

So you also talked about other markets you're getting into. Are there any specific verticals? Or are you talking about different processes?

Again, similar processes to what we did today. We're not going to become a broad-based EMS company. We're going to stay focused on our core technology. And then, develop into other markets which are complementary. A good example would be some of the autonomous driving technology that's very complementary to what we do in the optical space today, but also some of the medical equipment that we're targeting. So medical, industrial and automotive would be the 3, I would say, market segments, but with the real focus on technology.

Okay, understood. And for TS, could you give me -- I seem to have missed the new products versus existing products.

Okay, the new business equals $119 million, 35% of top line.

35%, so existing 65%, okay. Last question for me. The new facility that you guys opened not so long ago, I'd just be curious to know how much capacity is currently consumed.

So we have about 20% to 25% occupied right now and about 45% to 50% what we call spoken for. So it's about -- again, 45% to 50% spoken for.

Any thoughts on breaking ground on the next building? Or is that far enough out that you don't need to worry about it just yet?

I wouldn't worry about it a tad for this quarter certainly. Really just what we take is, once we get up to 60%, 65% output in that facility, we will build the second facility. We generally break ground and add capacity proactively. We're not going to wait for a customer to come. We're going to add capacity proactively. So once they get up to, I would say, 65% there thereabouts outputs, we would add a new facility there. And we have enough land and space there to add several facilities. We probably have enough, certainly, in terms of land and capacity, we have enough to last us for, I would say, another 8 to 10 years.

And I'm showing no further questions. I'd like to return the call to Mr. Seamus Grady for any closing remarks.

Okay. Thanks very much, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our call today, and we look forward to speaking with you again soon. Thank you.

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