意法半導體 (STM) 2010 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Welcome and thank you for joining the STMicroelectronics first quarter 2010 results conference call.

As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded.

After the presentation there will be an opportunity to ask questions.

(Operator instructions).

At this time I would like to turn the conference over to Mr.

Tait Sorensen, Director Investor Relations.

Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you for joining our first quarter 2010 conference call.

Hosting the call today is Carlo Bozotti, ST's President and Chief Executive Officer.

Joining him on the call are Alain Dutheil, Chief Operating Officer; Carlo Ferro, Chief Financial Officer; Carmelo Papa, Executive Vice President of the Industrial and Multisegment Sector; and Philippe Lambinet, Executive Vice President of Home Entertainment and Displays.

This call is being broadcast live over the web and can be accessed through ST's website.

A replay will be available shortly after the conclusion of this call.

This call will include forward-looking statements that involve risk factors that could cause ST's results to differ materially from management's expectations and plans.

We encourage you to review the Safe Harbor statement contained in the press release that was issued with the results last night and also in ST's most recent regulatory filings for a full description of these risk factors.

As a reminder, please limit yourself to one question and a brief follow-up.

And now I'd like to turn the call over to Carlo Bozotti, ST's President and CEO.

Thank you, Tait and thank you for joining us on today's call and for your interest in STMicroelectronics.

We are pleased with the results for the first quarter.

The numbers were in line with our expectations, are improving with a return to positive earnings and continued strong cash flow from operations.

In the current environment we are working hard to serve the increase in the demand from our customers, and we are focusing on the very significant opportunity to improve the profitability of the Company.

Our product innovation is in full swing with, among others, key design wins in microcontrollers, MEMS and ASICs, plus the new portfolio transition underway at ST-Ericsson.

We are also seeing good momentum with customers, including our 19 new key accounts.

Net revenues for the first quarter increased 40%, thanks to IMS with 60% revenue growth and ACCI with 47% growth in comparison to the year-ago time frame.

These figures reflect both the significant rebound from the economic downturn as well as solid demand for our products.

Regionally, the strongest result came out of greater China/South Asia and America with 60% and 49% revenue growth, respectively.

Sequentially, our revenues were down 10%, reflecting fewer days in the first quarter.

Our financial performance reflects a significant turnaround in the bottom line result following the deep downturn of early 2009.

Last year we focused on important strategic actions to the shape of our product portfolio and improved the efficiency of our operations.

As a result, we are very happy to have returned the Company to profitability.

We achieved net income of $57 million or 6% per share, despite the first-quarter revenues are 20% lower than the Q3 2008 pro forma peak of the Company, and the losses incurred by ST-Ericsson.

Our earnings have improved substantially and we are focused on growing them substantially as we progress through this year.

Mainly driven by the high fab loading, our first-quarter gross margin of 37.7% increased of 1140 basis points compared to the year-ago quarter and 17 basis points sequentially.

This sequential growth was in contrast to our historical seasonal decrease.

As I mentioned on our last call, this is the first time since 2002 that our first-quarter gross margin grew sequentially.

Now let's turn to our review of our businesses.

ACCI net revenues totaled $909 million.

Its 47% year-over-year growth was led by automotive, set-top box and computer peripheral products and reflected continued improvement in the industry conditions.

ACCI posted operating income of $48 million, representing an operating margin of 5.3%.

In particular, the automotive market segment grew an impressive 61% compared to the year-ago quarter, and we believe we are gaining market share, as we did last year, according to iSuppli.

IMS net revenues increased 60% year-over-year to $811 million, driven by strong growth in microcontrollers, analog and power discrete products and reflected solid growth in the multisegment market and in distribution.

IMS operating income increased to $92 million, and its operating margin continued to expand to 11.3%.

Turning to wireless, our net revenues in the first quarter increased 13% year-over-year to $587 million, driven by the solid demand in Asia.

Wireless operating loss in the first quarter was $116 million, mitigated by the $72 million of income to reflect minority interest in the joint venture.

Operating results were mainly due to lower revenues but partially mitigated by the ongoing restructuring initiatives at ST-Ericsson.

ST-Ericsson is focused on achieving the competitive cost structure, and at the same time it is progressively launching many new and leading-edge platforms.

One of our key goals for 2010 is to obtain the value that we deserve from our products, particularly from our new products.

As a result, we are seeing increasing ASPs in most of our product families, thanks to the revenue on the new products growing as a percentage of the respective product family portfolio.

Importantly, I think the result for the first quarter demonstrates where we are going in 2010.

We want to increase market share, gain value from our product portfolio and move progressively towards our target return on net assets of 12% to 18%.

We plan to continue to drive substantial improvement in revenue and earnings this year, combined by strong cash flow.

Our sustained R&D efforts are now leading to many new product introductions and important design wins with major companies across the market segments that we serve.

To help you better understand our product portfolio, let me review just a few of the new design wins with you.

In the area of MEMS, we have launched several new families of motion sensors for consumer and portable applications.

Recent design wins include 3-axis accelerometers and 3-axis analog output gyroscopes at several well-known portable computer device manufacturers and a 3-axis digital output gyroscope for the next-generation smartphone.

We're seeing continued momentum for our MEMS products in leading consumer, mobile and gaming platform applications.

In general, [power post] microcontrollers, ST recently announced several additions to its industry-leading 32-bit STM32 family including a low-cost MCU that brings the advantages of the families advanced ARM Cortex-M3 core to typical 16-bit applications.

In automotive electronics, we gained important design wins for our 32-bit MCU at tier 1 OEMs in Europe and in US.

Also in the automotive ST announced its 55-nanometer embedded Flash process technology to be manufactured at our Crolles 300-millimeter fab, which will be used to implement next-generation automotive MCU chips.

In powertrain applications, ST gained a significant share in a major worldwide engine control management platform covering all car segments, and in the safety applications we achieved design wins from two leaders in Europe and in the US for radio transceiver and baseband processors for medium and long-range obstacle detection.

We have introduced new, extremely complex digital ASICs for computer peripherals and communication infrastructure.

Here we recently won four major design wins.

Three of these are in 32-nanometer process technology and are among the first designs in that technology node.

In addition, we unveiled four new members of our SPEAr microprocessor family, targeting embedded control applications across several market segments in computer, communications and industrial applications.

In consumer applications we launched a number of set-top box recorders including our high end STi7108, which enables 3-D-ready hybrid Internet broadcast TV set-top boxes to deliver broadcast, Internet and personal content on the TV.

For digital TV in growing markets such as China, India and Latin America, we have introduced the STi7167.

Also we gained a key design win for our display port to VGA converter from a major tier 1 OEM in the US for portable applications.

In the area of advanced analog and smart power, we are introducing a large number of new products, including a class G stereo headphone amplifier IC that achieves significantly higher efficiency than previous generation devices and the world's most integrated ultrasound pulse controller, enabling the next generation of ultrasound imaging systems.

And in power conversion ICs, ST gained to design wins including one from a major consumer manufacturer in Europe for a kit including three different DC of DC converters for a new 2011 TV platform and another from a leading US game console maker for voltage regulator ICs.

Finally, ST-Ericsson had several important product announcements during the quarter, which they will discuss in detail on their call today, which follows ours.

We are committed to serving our customers and to meeting their demand requirements.

In order to respond to customer demand we are increasing our capacity in several key areas.

The first is we are growing our 8-inch capacity in smart power technology in Italy and 12-inch capacity in advanced CMOS technology in France.

Second, we are expanding the procurement of wafers from silicon foundries; and, third, our 6-inch power and analog facility in Singapore, where we are already running at about 15,000 wafers per day, is expected to increase capacity over the course of this year.

We believe this is the biggest fab in terms of output in the world for analog and power.

Our first quarter capital expenditures were $179 million.

We had planned, however, to invest more but were not able to do so due to longer lead times from semiconductor equipment suppliers.

We will catch up in Q2, and of course our priority is to capture demand and to serve our customers.

At the end of the first quarter, our net financial position was $566 million.

Over the course of 2009, we improved our operating cash flow and increased our net financial position and we expect to continue to build upon these results in 2010.

During the first quarter net operating cash flow was $176 million, representing 7.6% of net revenues.

Looking forward, we expect our net financial position to be strengthened through the monetization of our investment in Numonyx.

Based on Micron's current stock price, which is higher than when we announced the deal, the sale should represent about $900 million benefit to the capital structure of ST.

This figure is comprised of the value of the Micron share that ST will receive upon the completion of the transaction, the M6 facility which we will receive at closing and have already committed to our new photovoltaic initiative, representing about $80 million in value, and the termination of our $255 million loan guarantee to Numonyx.

While we cannot anticipate the timing, another important opportunity to announce our net financial position is that we are entitled to recover about $354 million from our legal action regarding the purchase of unauthorized auction rate securities by Credit Suisse.

All in all, both our capital structure and net cash positions are very solid, thanks to our solid financial foundation.

Earlier this week our supervisory board has recommended to shareholders an increase in our annual cash dividend to $0.28 from $0.12 last year.

Based on our current share price the proposed dividend represents a yield of about 2.7%.

Turning now to our cost reduction efforts, the restructuring within the ST perimeter is substantially done, and we remain focused on improving our business fundamentals.

The restructuring plans detailed by ST-Ericsson are well on track.

We entered 2010 targeting about $300 million of additional annualized cost savings with respect to the fiscal year 2009 from ongoing and already announced plans.

Approximately $280 million in savings still remain through completion, mainly to come from ST-Ericsson efforts.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, based upon our backlog and other factors, we expect sequential revenues growth of between 6% and 12%, led by double-digit growth at IMS and ACCI and assuming flat quarter-to-quarter revenues result for ST-Ericsson.

On a year-over-year basis, this represents substantial growth of about 24% to 31%.

Based upon the anticipated mix of revenue and the effective current rate of $1.38 to EUR1.00, we expect our gross margin to improve to about 38% plus or minus 1 percentage point.

Our gross margin progression is limited by our business mix evolution with the decreasing portion of wireless as a percentage of total revenues in the second quarter.

We expect an additional significant improvement in manufacturing costs for the second half of this year.

Starting from a loss of $0.08 per share in the fourth quarter of 2009, we have returned to profitability and in the first quarter of 2010 we reported income of $0.06 per share.

As the current market momentum is stronger than expected, we are committed to serve the robust demand of our customers, boosting our revenue growth and continuing to improve our net earnings through the next quarters.

In summary, our results show that we are executing with discipline and determination.

Our revenues and gross margin were in line with our outlook and even slightly better from a margin perspective.

We have returned ST to profitability, and we are committed to continuing to significantly improve net earnings as we move through 2010.

Our net cash from operations was a very solid 7.6% of sales, and our net financial position and capital structure are also quite solid, leading to the board and management decision to increase returns to shareholders by raising the cash dividend.

Now I would be happy to take your questions.

Thank you.

(Operator instructions) Gunnar Plagge, Nomura.

If I take your Q2 guidance for top-line and gross margin and assume a small OpEx decline, [and it really] comes out as on a divisional basis assuming a similar loss in wireless in Q2, I get quite high assumption for ACCI margins and IMS margins.

So could you talk a little bit about what we can expect in Q2 for those divisions on a margin level?

Yes.

Of course, there will be substantial improvement both in IMS and ACCI.

I believe that this is just the first step.

The way that we see, then, the following quarters is with additional improvement, and in fact in Q3 we also expect a significant improvement in ST-Ericsson.

So I would like to ask Carlo Ferro to comment more in details on IMS progression and ACCI progression.

Thank you, Carlo.

Good morning, good afternoon, everybody.

Thanks, Gunnar for the question.

Indeed, ACCI and IMS are really progressing on margin as anticipated, entering the year.

I am sure that with many of you, when talking about the profitability of these two segments and the prospective opportunity of the profitability entering the year, we have already shared the opportunity for them of continuous improvement.

In ACCI -- and also, we were not anticipating a major step from Q4 into Q1, due to the phase dynamic and the calendar impact on the sales dynamic, while we are very encouraged on the progression going forward.

ACCI at 5.3% is, at the end, below the peak where the group has been, the segment has been in the past.

We still have a very substantial opportunity of improvement for the automotive product group.

We have a computer which already delivered double-digit operating margins, and we have in the digital consumer division, as you know, the great opportunity as digital TV sales will ramp to the end of this year and beginning of next year, recovering also this area, while the set-top box we already benefit from a very substantial and I think (inaudible) profitability.

So ACCI has a substantial opportunity to go up from 5.3%.

And as you well noted, Gunnar, the second-quarter guidance already includes some portion, a portion of this progress.

On IMS, IMS in Q4 delivered an 11.3%.

We have already talked in the past that this is below the 15%-16% delivered in Q3 '08 before the crisis by this segment, a continued opportunity with the product mix moving towards analog product, the contribution of new product in MEMS; but, even more important, very important, the improvement from manufacturing our old driver for IMS to improve operating margin next quarter and to continue to improve through the year.

So we are very comfortable on this dynamic, especially considering that manufacturing is contributing somehow from Q1 to Q2 but not so much, why we do expect for the second half of the year to have an acceleration in the improvement of internal wafer cost and contribution of manufacturing to sales as also capacity will somehow increase in our (inaudible).

One additional short comment on IMS.

We expect IMS starting from Q2 and then in the following quarters to go above or substantially above our peak.

In IMS our peak was $900 million in Q3 '08, and the visibility of the new products and the effort that we are doing in this sector will give us this important opportunity.

So we expect strong growth there.

Okay, thank you.

And maybe as a follow-up, to what extent are the current wireless dynamics impacting your front-end manufacturing plants?

So how fast are you planning to ramp Crolles 2 to the 4500 wafers?

This is Alain Dutheil speaking.

In fact, you know, of course, wireless is using a lot of manufacturing infrastructure, but they are also using subcontractors.

And also there is a change of mix in the wireless business.

So as far as we are concerned, we are not going to be impacted in the ramp-up of our manufacturing.

We are going to ramp up Crolles as planned.

Could you give us a number maybe where you see the ramp by the end of the year?

By the end of the year in Crolles we are going to move from 2700 wafer per week to 3200.

2700 was the last year, and we are ramping up.

And of course, we are expanding significantly the procurement from silicon foundry.

But specifically on Crolles, these are the numbers, but also we are increasing the capacity as well.

We are increasing our capacity in Agrate in our 8-inch fab, mainly for the BCD type of technology.

And we are also increasing our capacity in Singapore.

And this is [concern] also.

Tristan Gerra, Robert W.

Baird.

Could you give us an update on the potential for a cash infusion at ST-Ericsson, and also maybe give us a sense of the progress you see for your 45-nanometer bay spend there and timing of ramp?

I think we will comment on the first one, and of course our conference call is just before the conference call of ST-Ericsson.

So I think we are at the level of the products and the specific programs and the new platforms, the new solutions.

I would suggest that this is discussed during the conference call with ST-Ericsson.

But Carlo, please comment on the financing of the venture.

Very, very quickly, just to confirm that the intent of ST-Ericsson [parlance] is to fully back the possible financial need of the joint venture.

At the end, we do not foresee nor joint venture management foresees any major cash shortage of the short-term free cash flow could be no positive.

They have available open facilities on working capital management and could eventually some bridge financing be required, the two parents are prepared with short-term credit facilities from parent.

Is not requested nor is currently contemplated by the partner any further equity injection into the joint venture.

If you could give us your utilization rates (inaudible) in Q1 and expectations for Q2?

Yes, sure.

This is Alain Dutheil.

In Q1 our utilization rate was just below 90%.

And by the way, our 8-inch and 12-inch fab were in a ramp up.

And in Q2 it's going to be slightly above 90%.

So this -- again, usually when we are giving these numbers it's compared to [standard line] capacity, which is a kind of ideal situation and 91% to 92% is a kind of maximum.

And our 8-inch and 12-inch will be also at this level.

So all our fab will be above 90%.

Of course, this is not a limitation because, at the same time, and in parallel, as I was saying before, we are increasing our capacity.

Sandeep Deshpande, JPMorgan.

Just a quick question on the gross margin guidance into the next quarter.

You are saying 38% plus/minus 1%.

Given very strong indications on ACCI and IMS on the margins and also the currency which has moved in your favor, the full-year 30 basis-point move in the gross margin, given the level of leverage you will have at these 90% utilization seems pretty low.

So is this just because you want to be cautious, or is this an ST-Ericsson impact on the gross margin?

Well, I think, of course, this is -- we expect a progressive improvement quarter after quarter, and I think we have already mentioned that we expect very significant improvement from our manufacturing machine in the second half of this year.

This is going to be material.

I think, Carlo, please, if you can elaborate here and describe, is clear, however, that this is just another step in the right direction somehow mitigated by the mix.

But the potential is, of course, to progressively improve quarter after quarter.

Carlo, please?

First of all, I would say that the gross margin for Q4, as we see it today, is totally in line with our initial plan, what --

42, sorry, 42.

What eventually we have done a little bit better than expectations during the first quarter, of course, somehow mitigate the sequential progress from Q3 to Q1 into Q2 or whether from Q4 into Q2 we do expect one full point of improvement in the gross margin.

The reason for that in respect to the positive dynamic of manufacturing to the positive dynamic of the product mix and the introduction of new products at basically all the product groups is that, of course, the weight of sales in wireless on the total sales play a substantial role as a factor of our gross margin.

So, as Carlo has anticipated, next quarter we expect revenues to grow double-digit for ACCI and IMS, but substantially remaining flat on wireless.

And of course, this change in the mix between the three segments has a short-term impact on the gross margin.

On the wireless business itself, you did talk about supporting the wireless business.

Are there any other actions that need to be taken, given that the wireless business is now actually hurting your overall top-line and bottom-line performance at a pretty good point in the cycle?

Well, I think, first of all, the first comment is that we don't know.

I think you know that, indeed, this is a good moment in the cycle.

But there are, from a customer point of view, performers that are not the same everywhere from a geographical point of view.

So this is a transition year for ST-Ericsson.

As you know, the transition is to move from a business model that was more focused and concentrated on ASICs into a business model that will be mainly driven by platforms and solutions, so this is one reason.

And the second reason is that the restructuring, the (inaudible) -- I think now it is time for us in ST to focus on fundamentals.

And this is what we will aggressively do quarter after quarter.

In ST-Ericsson the restructuring opportunities are still very significant.

In fact, overall, they still need to complete restructuring with potential benefits in the range of $250 million.

I believe the potential is great.

The [base] of [IP's], the new products, the customer endorsement is there.

It takes some time, but it would be done.

It is not the first time that we went through some important strategic initiatives in ST.

I just want to mention Numonyx again.

This quarter or next quarter, depending on the final closing date, we will significantly enjoy because, of course, this is very material to improve our net financial position.

We were committed on that.

We went through, and we will do the same with wireless, of course on a completely different angle because we are committed, and this is an important strategic initiative.

The underlying value is very, very important.

This is a transition phase from a product point of view.

[It's still at] in terms of restructuring, but the potential is great.

We are very committed, and we will succeed.

Didier Scemama, RBS.

I'd just like to basically ask you a question regarding the depreciation and the impact of consolidating M6 back on your gross margin (multiple speakers) basically, going forward.

And I also have a follow-up; thank you.

Yes, Carlo will take this.

Didier, depreciation for Q1 are $[251] million.

This is the D only.

Then we have about $50 million of amortization on top of that.

For the full year we expect the depreciation in the range of $1.1 billion at current exchange rates, and amortization of about additional $200 million.

Right, because basically, if I take into account those comments, it seems like your gross margin excluding depreciation was kind of flattish sequentially in the first quarter, despite a very high level of utilization rates and probably some positive pricing.

And also if I take into account the midpoint of your guidance for Q2, it feels like your gross margins are in fact slightly down sequentially excluding depreciation, again despite positive impact of pricing, utilization rates and, in fact, a strong tail wind from FX.

So if you could just help me reconciling the gross margin guidance, which is a bit puzzling, really?

Yes, Didier, maybe off-call, we can, of course, expand on many details.

And I'm sorry to have to introduce again this complexity with ST on the accounting calendar, which in Q1 is 10% shorter than Q4.

So when you compare depreciation Q1 to Q4, most of the reduction exactly follows the difference in calendar, but also revenues have followed the difference in calendar.

I guess this is the high-level answer to your question, and of course how (inaudible) [understand].

And for Q2?

The depreciation for Q2?

Yes.

We expect similar to [prior] quarter.

And just a question on the cost base because, obviously, the positive impact of the FX is yet to come in the P&L.

Would you expect, therefore, that your actual OpEx sort of stabilize where they are here or even come down going forward?

Say that the impact of the exchange rate is obviously materializing progressively and reflecting our hedging policy in the prior period that has very much mitigated effect of the increase of the exchange rate short-term, and of course now we are mirroring on the same effect on the other side.

So you may note from the press release that, effective exchange rate for Q1 has been 1.39, and our Q2 forecast is based on 1.38, which implies an average rate from now to the end of the quarter of 1.34.

So maybe where we stand today is slightly better than that, but at the end of the day exchange rate is not a big gain when moving from Q1 into the second quarter.

Obviously, as we will move forward in the second half of the year, if exchange rate remains at this level or eventually even improve, we will take a higher advantage since, in Q3, we have so far hedged a portion of the expenses but not the full target portion and for Q4 even the lower portion.

Carlo, you are going to have post I think, quite clearly, a very clever sale of Numonyx to Micron as well as the future settlement with Credit Suisse.

You are going to have maybe close to $2 billion of cash, maybe just short of that, by the end of this year.

So you are one of the few companies in the sector to pay a fat dividend but still a modest dividend in comparison to other sectors.

What are you going to do with all this money?

Well, first of all, I think today, really the focus is on fundamentals.

Fundamentals is -- well, you mentioned expenses.

Still, we are 20% below our peak.

This is a great opportunity for ST because we will go back to the peak, and our expenses substantially will either decrease or not increase.

So this is a great opportunity to reduce the expense to sales, just to mention one.

But the same is for the new product, etc.

Today what we want to do, of course, is to move on with our, you know, focus on fundamentals.

We do not have, as I already commented in January, I think, we do not have at this moment any important initiative on the plate.

We want to digest what we have done, and the focus will be on fundamentals.

We have decided to increase the dividend.

So I think it's a significant increase.

I think we are moving from $0.12 last year to $0.28 this year.

It is not yet at the level that we had before the crisis, but of course this is an opportunity, then, for future years.

But again, the focus today is on fundamentals, and we want to enforce our net financial position.

And then, of course, we will see with time.

But today priority is really to digest what we have done, to go back to [run] between 12% and 18%.

We can do, we will do.

Jerome Ramel, Exane BNP Paribas.

With the capacity constraint you mentioned, I'd just like to understand how the relationship with your customers -- if that gives you more visibility, and what is your current visibility?

Where are the lead times, and what is the pricing today?

So if anything has changed over the last couple of months, or if it's still business as usual?

I think I will take the point on the customers, and Alain will get more on the details and the capacity and what we are doing.

Today I think, overall, in the industry what we see, and for sure it's not only for ST, I think it's somehow global, our customers are asking more.

I have to say that, of course, we are in contact with many, many customers.

And we are in contact also with many of the customers of our customers, so the demand is robust.

And we are increasing capacity.

I think this will progressively happen during the course of this year.

I think, of course, this is in the frame of what we already have.

But this is an important flexibility that we have in the Company.

We can grow capacity everywhere with a mitigated CapEx in all the blocks that we control.

But I would like Alain to describe what we are doing in the 12-inch, in the 8-inch, etc.

As I was mentioning before, while, of course, our utilization rate is pretty high, we are increasing our capacity.

We are increasing our capacity not only in front end, but also in back end and in testing, which is quite important.

And by the way, we would have liked to spend more in capacity in the first quarter and in the second quarter, but the lead times are increasing.

So we are pushing our supplier to get more equipment.

So what we are doing in our front end is, number one, I mentioned Crolles.

We are increasing the capacity this year to 3200, and we'll move progressively to 3600 and a little bit more, if needed.

I mentioned the 8-inch fab, and this is mainly our Agrate fab, where we are increasing our capacity in the BCD, in the technology of the BCD, which are, by the way, very important for the automotive customer.

And here we are doing it by moving some equipment from the US to this fab, but not only, also to getting some new equipment.

And we are increasing also our six-inch capacity in Singapore.

And by the same token, we are also increasing, as I was saying before, capacity and testing.

And here we have a pretty good visibility of what is the need of our customer as a kind of quite good visibility.

And I think it's important also to ramp that power capability testing in our back-end fab as well as the SMB capacity that we are also increasing.

On top of that, we are also asking more from our subcontractors, and we are getting more, or not as much as we would like, but we are also increasing our manufacturing there.

Does this mean that you've got (inaudible) until the end of this year?

Because, if we take into account the ramp up, it would probably take a quarter.

So does it mean that your customers are currently giving you visibility until the end of this year?

No.

We have started already to order the equipment and to put some equipment in place and to ramp up the capacity.

By the way, during the first quarter what we are to do, especially in our 8-inch and 12-inch, is to make sure that the fab where we are producing at the maximum capacity.

You remember that we had to decrease our headcount in [Rousset] and now we are -- up to the first quarter we are increasing the capacity.

Now it's done, it's going to be done fully in Q2 utilization rate and we are responding to our customer.

We are not responding to our customer as much as we would like, but at least we are doing our best.

And of course, it's progressive.

I think, if we look at the volume per day, Q1 is already better than Q4.

There will be a significant increase in Q2 and then a significant increase in Q3.

Today we have a pretty solid visibility from our customers, of course, for Q3.

And we expect in our -- of course, to achieve what we said on the guidance for the sales in Q2.

But we expect another significant step than in Q3.

Simon Schafer, Goldman Sachs.

I was hoping you could make some more qualitative comments maybe about just the state of the channel.

Carlo, you referred to the observation that some of your divisional sales are pretty close to previous peak levels or, in fact, in some cases potentially exceeding because of some new product growth areas.

But I think at the end of Q1 you had already basically said you yourself felt that there were some degree of double ordering happening.

So perhaps you could just comment as to what you're seeing in the channel in terms of inventory build and other lead times along the different areas.

That would be very helpful.

Well, I have to say that at the end of Q1 possibly I was too pessimistic.

I -- excuse me, at the beginning of Q1 in January, when we met in Paris.

I think today, talking to our customers but, as we said, also talking to the customers of our customers, we do not have any evidence of a buildup of inventory.

We track regularly and continuously, of course, for instance, the inventory at our distributors.

The POS is increasing, so the point of sales, the revenues of our distributors are increasing.

And our inventory at our distributors is not increasing at all.

In fact, it is pretty low.

And I believe we do not have real evidence of any buildup of inventory in any place, so my comment one quarter ago was a concern.

And I think today I have to say that I am optimistic because the visibility that we have for Q2 and for Q3 is pretty solid.

And what does that mean in terms of your own leadtimes?

I understand, obviously, you are trying to add capacity and there is perhaps some supply-side constraints in your own ability to add capacity.

But what about leadtimes for your own products, your own customers?

Well, I think Carmelo will take this.

Maybe before we go to the lead time, you said that we are already back at the peak.

We are not yet back at the peak, and this is an important element because, you know, in Q1 we were still about 20% below our peak.

And even in IMS in Q1 I think we have done $811 million.

Right?

The peak in IMS was $900 million.

And of course we've got back to the peak, and this is a great opportunity because for us going back to the peak is, of course, a dramatic improvement in the earnings per share.

But please, Carmelo, comment on the leadtimes of your products.

Well, lead times unfortunately are against us.

We are building the capacity, fortunately, but right now, though we are aggressive in manufacturing, improving yields, improving the efficiency of the manufacturing machine after the heavy disaster last year, we still have room to grow.

And therefore the lead times are not totally what we would like them to be.

So they are stretching out.

The demand is continually growing by each region without any discrimination.

Last year was just Asia, at the very beginning of the ramp up.

Now it's in Europe, it is America, it's everywhere.

So we have the new products coming up.

We are -- for instance, there's a tremendous opportunity for the gyroscope of MEMS that in Q2 will have a significant impact, very visible, and this will grow.

It's a pervasiveness that is similar to what was happening before, for gyroscope, three years or two years ago and last year.

So we are very, very confident.

As Carlo was saying, there is no build up in inventory of the (inaudible) of big OEMs.

So everything is in our favor, at least for next quarter and for Q3.

My final question would be, and I'm sorry I have to ask on this again, but just as it relates to the gross margin outlook, I guess one way to perhaps follow on is to just ask by how much your cost of goods sold are perhaps increasing because of this added requirement in terms of capacity.

So by how much is the capacity base growing?

So I guess, again, how much is depreciation really impacting cost of goods sold, by which token then you aren't seeing as much gross margin leverage as perhaps we would have expected, given the product mix shift and utilization rate increase and so on?

Well, I think Carlo would maybe detail better.

But I think we have grown moving from Q4 to Q1 where the growth is more limiting moving from Q1 to Q2.

And this is a real mix.

It is mix because --

Your mix was favorable in Q2.

No, the mix is -- we are selling -- wireless is going to be flat.

And we are, for instance, growing significantly our discrete business.

So I think, from a gross margin point of view, this is not favorable mix because we would be selling -- discrete is a good business, I think is a good earnings per share, is a good profitability on discrete.

But it is not the same level of gross margin that we have on wireless.

So, while I have absolutely nothing against our discrete business because the yield in terms of profitability is very good, I think in terms of gross margin it is not at the same level as wireless, for instance.

And this is why our mix somehow is impacting Q2.

However, in Q3, I think first of all there will be a very significant manufacturing improvement, manufacturing performance improvement in the second half.

And then wireless will get back with stronger sales, and therefore we are confident on the progress of the gross margin performance quarter after quarter.

Gareth Jenkins, UBS.

I just wondered, product by product -- I know it's a wide question -- but whether you are seeing any upward pricing pressure and, if so, in which particular areas.

And then, just secondly, on further restructuring and then any cost savings that you see going forward over and above what you've already announced, as we go forward into 2011.

And then, finally, on the M&A outlook you've been pretty aggressive in terms of getting the wireless business together.

Is there anything further that you see in terms of corporate cleanup post Numonyx that (multiple speakers)?

I think, on the prices, Carmelo will comment.

Of course, we have opportunities today.

Carmelo, please (multiple speakers) and also, Philippe?

Talking on prices is always a difficult matter because it's not easy with customers.

They are used to what was happening last year, and therefore we have a different (inaudible) today.

But we are deploying internally a strong program to increase prices wherever it is possible.

And of course, this is -- we need to understand, there are big accounts that, by no way, can we increase the price.

Unless you renew a contract, you can discuss on a different level of -- different degree of freedom.

But there are distributors where we can do this.

So overall, I can say that the impact of the price decreases will be much, much less than they used to be before, at least for my products.

So this is one fact.

And therefore, again, we feel positive about this.

I think, regarding ACCI, clearly we follow the same approach.

The long-term contracts are protected.

However, upsides and shorter-term businesses, we do have an opportunity to increase prices, and so we're doing that selectively.

And definitely this will have a good impact in the quarters to come.

x11 Carlo?

Maybe I take the question on the structuring again that we said in January that we still have three initiatives ongoing, the so-called phase two for ST-Ericsson, the so-called phase three for ST-Ericsson and the completion of the manufacturing in ST, which is mostly the phase-out of the 8-inch fab in Phoenix.

I'll say that the ST-Ericsson press release should be very helpful on guiding on these respects since they are very clear.

Out of $230 million of target savings for phase two at the end of March, they have achieved about half.

So $115 million remains from end of March to completion, while phase two is not started yet and will mostly affect on the second half of the year, which is another $115 million savings.

So [these end up to] $230 million from end of March to completion of the plan, and as, obviously, a substantial improvement, the progress in Q1 has occurred in the course of the quarter when comparing to the cost structure of Q1, you may consider a few things of additional million dollar on an annualized basis because of this effect.

On top of that, we have our initiative in Phoenix and, overall, the opportunities add up to about $280 million annualized from Q1 income statement to the completion of the plan that Carlo has mentioned on his introductory remarks.

Yes, and then the last question was on M&A.

I think, again, the priorities we see are two.

One is to increase the earnings per share, and the second one is, of course, is to increase EBITDA.

I think we want to focus on fundamentals, and we need to digest and make sure that the wireless initiative is successful.

As I said, we have all the ingredients to be successful there.

This is a transition year, but it is a big effort in R&D to introduce new products, particularly, of course, for the smart phones and also for, in general, the high-end modem solutions including LTE.

So priorities on the fundamentals and the priority is to succeed in what we are doing with Ericsson on the wireless joint venture.

Glen Yeung, Citigroup.

Are you able to compare your 8-inch wafer capacity that you expect to achieve when you are done all your capacity additions to where you were in 2008?

Yes, of course, we are able to compare.

I think it is even more important to compare Q4 2009 with Q4 2010, and I think maybe on a separate call we can detail the comparison also with 2008.

But I have clearly in my mind what is the progression moving from 2009 -- from the end of 2010.

And this is a very material growth.

And I have to say this is a very material growth with a very (inaudible) CapEx, and this is an excellent opportunity for us.

And this is, of course, particularly on smart power technologies, not exclusively; it is also on an embedded [discrete] prong and embedded Flash technologies.

But it's very material.

Of course, I cannot provide a number.

I think, as I said before, it's progressing quarter after quarter.

But there's plenty of wafers.

And the good point to us is that it's limited capital investment.

I think I want to underline this because, together with this drop in the volume in the 8-inch facility, we'll enjoy significant cost reduction.

But this is an important opportunity, and we are really jumping on this opportunity.

I guess what I was just trying to understand, though, was whether or not there was a material decline in wafers in 2009, so that I clearly understand that from '09 to 2010 you are going to grow.

I'm just trying to understand if your 2010 wafers will be above where you were in 2008.

No, but this is not what I said.

I compare Q4 2009.

And as you know, in Q4 2009, we were at a fab utilization of about, I think -- Alain, correct me -- of about 85%?

Yes.

So I'm not comparing 2010 with 2009.

This, of course, as a comparison would not make any sense because in the first half of 2009 our loading was extremely low.

I am comparing Q4 2009, where the loading was not optimal but was already at 85%.

And then I'm comparing this number with Q4 2010.

And as I said, of course, this is ramping progressively quarter after quarter, and this is very material.

So if we would compare 2010 with 2009, it would not make any sense.

But I think it's a very important opportunity because 2009 was already at a good level of loading.

(multiple speakers)

In any event, the IR team will touch the base with you when they share the information on Q3 '08.

Unfortunately, we don't have [it handy here].

Sorry for that.

Oh no, understood, thank you; I'll follow up offline.

The other question I have is a bit of an oddball one.

I just wanted to get any feel you have for other income guidance for the quarter and for the year.

You know, Q1 normally is a quarter a little bit weaker because of this seasonality of [grants that you have from our higher] towards the end of the year and lower at the beginning of the year, when government are still (inaudible) how protective of the yearly budget so -- for these reasons.

So what we currently see for other income and expenses, and I could suggest to considering the model is $20 million plus or minus a few million for each of the following quarter.

Overall, we are quite comfortable that the R&D funding in the year may materialize above $100 million, as expected, and overall the line, other income and expenses for the year, could be net income in a range of $70 million to $80 million.

Of course, it does not include any gain from the divestiture of Numonyx that eventually makes the gain a totally different, much higher number.

You did very well to manage your inventories in the March quarter.

What is your expectation for your own inventories in the June quarter?

Well we do, at the end, of course, continue to manage our operation in order to serve customers and meet increasing demand and meeting our 4.5 to 5 turns target on inventories.

Overall, on this basis, we do expect in the second quarter inventory turns may improve from the 4.6 of the prior quarter, reflecting an overall situation whereby inventories in work in progress eventually increase, and this is needed to serve demand while we are continuing to decrease inventories in finished products.

Janardan Minon, Liberum Capital.

You've mentioned quite a few times that you will see a very significant improvement in your manufacturing machine in the second half of the year.

I was just wondering can you just elaborate what exactly this significant improvement entails?

Is it a rise in capacity utilization from the current sort of north of 90% to around 92%, or is there something else which is going to come in, in a significant manner?

And just sort of follow-up, your computer sales was relatively weak, down about 21% quarter on quarter in what was a very strong quarter for PC-related companies.

I'm just wondering what are the dynamics which are causing that weakness going through in your computer sales.

Is it loss of market share in disk drives?

Is that something that can continue, or is there something else which is working there?

Well, I think I will take the question on manufacturing and then we will comment on computer.

So as far as manufacturing is concerned, I think there are various ingredients.

First of all, last year, for our manufacturing machine, was really a difficult year.

The disruption was tremendous, and I think finally Q2 will be the first very good quarter in terms of loading, in terms of also running with the proper mix, running with an optimal situation in our fab.

And, as you know, because we have a stock turn that is rolling, now is above, now is at the level of 4.6.

But a significant proportion of the advantage that we have in the manufacturing machine in Q2 will [lead] then the cost of goods sold in Q3 of this year.

So I think the optimal loading and the fact that we can move into a more controlled mix is an important factor.

The second is, of course, the learning curve and the progress in terms of productivity, in terms of equipment utilization -- so this is also playing.

Of course, the continuous improvement in the yield; this is important, it is the second important block.

And there is, then, another block that is significant is the rolling off of certain blocks of depreciation in the course of the second half of this year.

Now, if we move into back end, for instance, there is an important problem in the Company.

We are buying a lot of gold, you know, and we are progressively moving gold wires into copper wires.

And this is another important program that we have.

So these are the main elements of the improvement, I think, is optimal loading but also optimal mix, is the continuous improvement process in terms of yields, productivity, equipment utilization, the reduction of the depreciation in the second half and in the back end the strong drive on savings, on materials, particularly replacing gold wires with copper wires.

Now, as far as computer peripheral is concerned I think that Philippe will take it.

Yes.

I just want to remind you that computer segment was extremely strong in Q3-Q4.

So the Q1 performance you mentioned basically reflects a bit of seasonality, a bit, of course, due to the number of days in Q1.

But we don't believe it reflects a loss of market share.

I think it's just, we could not continue on the extremely, extremely strong performance we have in Q3-Q4.

But at the end of the day, we will recover that situation and we'll see a more normal pattern in the coming quarters.

But we don't expect a loss of market share in that segment.

[Adrian Bombilar], Piper Jaffray.

I just want to come back to your operating expenses.

I think you seem to be implying that OpEx would come down by another about $200 million or more.

Could you give us a little bit more color on how OpEx is actually going to come down by quarter, Q2, Q3 and Q4?

I see you are down by about $30 million in Q1, I think, was still pretty far from the levels you promised last year.

So I just wanted to know when that materializes by quarter.

I would say that the end has really most of the expense is dynamic driven, but [restructuring] initiative is now under ST-Ericsson.

Could you have, please, the patience of waiting in half an hour?

I'm sure that in half an hour you can ask the question directly to ST-Ericsson and this, of course, will be easier in our protocol of overall communication.

On our end and my side, I would eventually re-address in respect to the second quarter the dynamic from Q1 and Q2 for operating expenses, and the -- really, we do expect from Q1 to Q2 to benefit from a very substantial improvement in the overall OpEx to sales ratio.

And just as a quick follow-up, I was actually wondering more in terms of a business portfolio if you had any views on splitting up the Company.

I think, if you look at your three businesses -- IMS, wireless and ACCI -- each one of them could be independent companies.

And I was just wondering if you were very committed to keeping those three together and if you thought there were real synergies between the three.

Well, no; I think we do not have any plan to split the Company.

I think I just want to mention one important element of synergy that is in between the consumer, between the consumer and the wireless, is the new generation of application processors.

This is, of course, a very important product.

And it will be the same configuration, the same structure that we are going to use both for set-top box and digital TV on one side and on the smart phones on the other side.

This is just an example of important synergies.

There is a new generation of application processor.

And of course, there will be one platform here being developed in cooperation between the two entities.

This was just one element.

To say that there is a venue now for the Company and the same comment I can do on the technology, for instance.

So we do not have any plan to split.

I think at this time we'll close the conference call and we'll let Carlo close.

Well, I would like to close with a few comments on the progresses that we have done in the course of the first quarter in terms of design wins.

I think it was a particularly good quarter in various areas.

I think was very, a very significant win in the area of the new gyroscopes for MEMS.

This is a very important opportunity for us -- very short-term, starting from Q2, and is, of course, for portable consumer applications is a new family, and this will start paying off very soon.

Another important win that I would like to mention is in the area of ASICs, both for computer peripherals and communication infrastructure.

These are very important wins covering the two market segments.

And in the area of computer communication infrastructure, I think we started with the new generation of 32-nanometer technology that, of course, is the very high end.

So they are very complex products, and we are very pleased to see the endorsements from major customers on these high-end products.

And, finally, I would like to mention also our microcontroller design wins, both for industrial and for automotive.

Of course, the time frame of the return is different in the sense that in the industrial the return is shorter term, while in the automotive it's more medium-/long-term.

But these are very important design wins.

So we have a lot of recognition our customers in terms of new products endorsement, and many of these things are very much on the high end.

So with that, Dino, we'll go ahead and close down the call.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded and you may disconnect your telephones.

Thank you for joining us today and have a pleasant day.

Goodbye.