Earnings Labs

Camtek Ltd. (CAMT)

Q4 2014 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 12, 2015

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentleman, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Camtek’s Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2014 Results Conference Call. All participants are at present in listen-only mode. Following management’s formal presentation instructions will be given for the question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. You should have all received by now the company’s press release. If you have not received it, please contact Camtek’s Investor Relations team at GK Investor Relations or view it in the News section of the company’s website, www.camtek.co.il. I’d now like to hand over the call to Mr. Ehud Helft of GK Investor Relations. Mr. Helft, would you like to begin, please?

Ehud Helft

Management

A good day to all of you. I would like to welcome all of you to Camtek’s fourth quarter 2014 results conference call and I would like to thank Camtek’s management for hosting this call. With us on the line today are Mr. Rafi Amit, Camtek’s Chairman and CEO; and Mr. Moshe Eisenberg, Camtek's CFO. Rafi will provide an overview of Camtek's strategy going forward. Moshe will discuss some of the recent developments and summarize the financial results in the fourth quarter. We will then open the call for a question-and-answer session. Before we begin I'd like to remind our listeners that certain information provided on this call are internal company estimates unless otherwise specified. This call also may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and may change as time passes. Statements on this call are made as of today and the company undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements contained, whether as a result of new information, future events, change in expectation or otherwise. Investors are reminded that actual events or results may differ materially from those projected, including as a result of changing industry and market trends, reduced demand for services and products, the timely development of new services and products and their adoption by the market, increased competition in the industry and price reductions, as well as due to other risks identified in the company’s filings with the SEC. Please note that the Safe Harbor statement in today’s press release also covers the content of this conference call. In addition, during this call certain non-GAAP financial measures will be discussed. These are used by management to make specific decisions, focus future results and evaluate the company’s current performance. Management believes that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investor understanding and assessment of the company’s ongoing co-operation and prospects for the future. A full reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures is included in today’s earnings release. I would now like to turn over the call to Rafi Amit, Camtek’s Chairman and CEO. Rafi, go ahead, please.

Rafi Amit

Management

Okay. Thank you, Ehud. Hello to everyone and thank you for joining us. Overall 2014 was a good year for Camtek. We are happy with our performance ending the year with $88.3 million in revenue and non-GAAP net income of $4.6 million. Starting 2014, it was our strategy to focus our efforts on the PCB and Semiconductor business and in this regard we stopped our R&D effort in the Sela product lines. It is important to bear in mind that 2013 revenue includes approximately $9 million of Sela related sales versus only $2.5 million in 2014. At the beginning on 2015 we transferred the Sela business to a third party and no longer support the operation. This is in line with our strategy to focus on core competencies. Taking this into account we grew our semiconductor revenues organically by 20% over those of last year. Excluding the impact of Sela, our year-over-year overall revenue growth was around 12.5%. Our operating income for 2014 was $5.7 million versus $3.2 million last year. This improvement was driven by a more favorable product mix, mainly as a result of our focus strategy. Looking at the fourth quarter, we have reported revenue of $20.6 million, which was in-line with our expectations and the trend in our end markets. We do expect this to improve sequentially, although the first quarter is seasonally weaker due to the Chinese New Year, which falls in February. We reported non-GAAP operating income of $0.7 million for the quarter and $0.4 million in net income. We’ve also generated $5.6 million in positive operating cash flow, increased our net cash and short-term deposit level as of year end to $26.8 million. Our AOI businesses for the PCB industry continues to grow well. We maintained our market share and continue our focus…

Moshe Eisenberg

Management

Thank you Rafi. On the whole we are pleased with the results of the fourth quarter, which were in line with our expectations, as well as the results of 2014 in which we grew organically, especially with the 20% growth in our semiconductor revenues. I will first cover the fourth quarter results and then provide a summary of the full year financials. Fourth quarter revenues came at $20.6 million. Revenues were 12% below those of the fourth quarter last year and 8% over those of the previous quarter. Revenues from sales and services to the semiconductor industry was $13.9 million, representing 67% of our total revenue. Analyst expectations are for long [ph] semiconductor capital equipment spending with advance packaging applications growing strongly as a portion of this. As we move into 2015 we do feel that this is shaping up to be the case. Fourth quarter revenue from sale and service in the PCB market were $6.7 million, representing 33% of our total revenue in the quarter. This business continued to be driven mainly by Chinese and Taiwanese accounts, expanding their businesses. In addition, we are also generating revenue from system upgrades, and low and existing customers to enjoy some of the benefits that the new Phoenix technology brings. Looking ahead with regards to the first quarter of 2015 the Chinese New Year is always a significant break in the quarter and as usual we will have some impact on our PCB revenue. However, we believe that the growth on the semiconductor side of business will more than cover the seasonal shortfall on the PCB side. Looking further out Gryphon will likely begin its contribution to our revenue in 2015. The geographic split of the revenue for the quarter were as follows: China was the strongest region during the quarter…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The first question is from Krishna Shankar of Roth Capital. Please go ahead.

Krishna Shankar

Analyst

Yes, congratulations on the 2014 results. As you look at 2015, will most of the growth in semiconductors be driven by the inspection? Can you talk about wafer level versus packaging inspection? What kind of growth trends you see in both those areas and then should we expect to see Gryphon revenues in the second half of 2015?

Rafi Amit

Management

I would say in the semiconductor inspection we can see demand for all type of the segment that we are selling. Like all the 3D IC applications, CMOS Image Sensor or MEMS, all of them looking very promising for 2015. So we cannot say that we see all of that in one segment. We can see a little bit more recovery in the CMOS Image Sensor compared with 2014 when the second half was a little bit weak. In general all segments are going to grow during 2015. Now regarding the reforms as we mentioned we believe that since this is a new technology, a revolution technology we have to invest more effort on marketing with the end used, with all the food chain that must approve and use this material. So we do in parallel a lot of marketing efforts to go to the big players, to introduce the technology and in addition to that we go to many potential customers and try to contact them. Many of them are interested and would like to try and install the machine and right now this is in the middle of this process. So since we estimate that the evaluation and qualification may take a few months, we believe that we can see revenue recognition from I would say Q2 and more.

Krishna Shankar

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Rafi Amit

Management

You’re welcome.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Jay Srivatsa of Chardan Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Jay Srivatsa

Analyst

Thanks for taking my question. Rafi, on the Gryphon you did a demo in December. Can you give us some feedback on what the response has been from customers and what are some of the issues in terms of things that you need to address or what are some of the positive feedbacks that you have got. Can you expand on that please?

Rafi Amit

Management

I would say what we could see from most of the customer, they will be more than happy to install the system right away, because it reduces their cost, reduces labor, reduce waste treatment, you name it footprint, so they can see all the benefits. But eventually the verdict is made by the end user and any changes of material must be approved and qualified by the end user. So although they want tomorrow to install the machine, they need first to introduce, to present it to the end user, to get his approval and then they are ready to start and purchase such machines. For example, our first customer in California, next week is going to make like an RPO, lets call it a demo to over 25 of his customer. He invited them to his site. He wants to show them the technology, the result and everything. So this is exactly what I said, that the migration process takes some time.

Jay Srivatsa

Analyst

All right. How do you see the Gryphon installations playing out? Do you expect your customers who are currently maybe using LDI to run the Gryphon side by side or do you expect a replacement cycle. How do you see that playing out?

Rafi Amit

Management

First of all, most of the customers do not use LDI for solder mask, because the solder mask we need a lot of energy and LDI is not capable to supply such energy. So still I would say 99% of the customers use the conventional process, meaning his outwork and exposure system. So I assume that since everyone must have such process right now, at the beginning they will use the Gryphon for all the tough jobs, the alignment issue. It’s very tough for them to make it with the conventional technology and side by side we try to use more and more and eventually they stop using the conventional technology for solder mask.

Jay Srivatsa

Analyst

All right. So given the introduction and your customers starting to get some product, what is your expectations for this year in terms of the number of machines you expect to ship for fiscal ’15.

Rafi Amit

Management

This is something that it’s not so easy for us to predict and I would say that we can estimate something around lets say 20 to 30 installations. But this is I would say something that we estimate, but it could be double. The reason is how long it takes to customers to adapt, the accept it. Okay look, it looks perfect, it looks nice. We would like to start using it. This is something that we have no experience and sometime we do not understand how long it takes. If I even go back to the NDI and see the ramping time, how long it took, it took time, because every new process, new technology, it takes the industry some time to adapt it, to get use to it, so this is why its so difficult for us to estimate. But eventually we have to build the machine, we have to build inventory, so we have to put a number. So right now we are organized for this number and if we find that we need to make it double, I would say roughly the response time for different numbers could be around six months.

Jay Srivatsa

Analyst

All right. And then in terms of the lawsuit, this has been one that’s been permeating for a long time. What’s the end game here? What do you hope to accomplish and put this to rest?

Rafi Amit

Management

Look, we believe, together with all the professional consulting and lawyer that our case is very strong and we must win this case. The problem, until now it couldn’t file all the points to the federal court. We were limited what we can file in the appeal. Now when the final verdict is done, we actually can appeal for everything, for everything that all the time we knew and we understand there was some incorrect issues in the Minnesota court. So we are very optimistic that after we appeal to the federal, we definitely will win this case.

Jay Srivatsa

Analyst

Okay. Thank you.

Rafi Amit

Management

You’re welcome.

Operator

Operator

The next question is from Brett Piira of B. Riley. Please go ahead.

Brett Piira

Analyst

Great, thanks for taking my question. Maybe just you mentioned that you will be launching a new Gryphon in February. Can you give us any details on what the upgrades to that system will be?

Rafi Amit

Management

First, you are welcome to the show. It’s very nice. Okay, this new model is what we call like two colors model. You know that there are two processes in the industry, one is solder mask. Today all the solder mask process are done by outwork lithography and this is what you call the conventional process. Some are giving with the NDI, but still it is the same process. We are developing – the cost in developing all the process. So solder mask was our first phase. Now we also can make Legend. And legend printer you can find in the market, but we make it one step. So the first part, the machine applies the solder mask, dries it on the fly and immediately apply the legend on top of it. So you don’t have to go to another machine to make another process. Its in one process you make these two steps and this is very efficient. It’s cut the cycle time by many hours and its very precise, because you don’t move anything. In the same panel you do both. We will present this capability in the San Diego show.

Brett Piira

Analyst

Okay great, that’s helpful. Then maybe just back to the lawsuit. Just to double check, should we expect any impact to OpEx as you have to file these appeals.

Rafi Amit

Management

Moshe, do you want to comment on this?

Moshe Eisenberg

Management

Yes, I assume that we will have to add certain amount of legal fees, but this will be limited, so I’m not expecting a huge change over the numbers that you are familiar with over the last couple of years.

Brett Piira

Analyst

All right. Thanks guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you [Operator Instructions]. The next question is from Larry Litton of Second Line. Please go ahead.

Larry Litton

Analyst

I just wanted a clarification about a statement you make about a product line no longer being supported. Is that in the $88 million for 2014 and if not, what’s the real base of business that we are comparing off of for 2014.

Moshe Eisenberg

Management

Okay, we are talking about the Sela product lines. This business has been with Camtek since 2009. In 2014 we decided to stop the next generation product lines from this system, mainly as a result of strategic decisions to focus on our core competency and at that point we minimize the number of people working for this group to a very small amount of people. In 2014 this product line contributed approximately $2.5 million. So if you want to compare the base line of 2014 to next year, we have to reduce $2.5 million from the top-line.

Larry Litton

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Moshe Eisenberg

Management

One more sentence to complete the picture which Rafi mentioned, however I want to clarify. In the beginning of 2015 we basically transferred this business out of Camtek to a third party and we are no longer supporting this business. So you should expect pretty much zero impact on our revenue or business in 2015.

Larry Litton

Analyst

Thank you.

Moshe Eisenberg

Management

You’re welcome.

Operator

Operator

There a no further questions at this time. Before I ask Mr. Amit to go ahead with his closing statement, I would like to remind participants that a replay of this call will be available on Camtek’s website, www.camtek.co.il within the next 48 hours. Mr. Amit would you like to make a concluding statement.

Rafi Amit

Management

Okay, I would like to thank you for all your continued interest in our business. First, we intend to present to investors [indiscernible] conference in early March and B. Riley Conference in May and we look forward to seeing many of you there. To the rest of you, I look forward to talking with you again next quarter. Thank you and good-bye.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes the Camtek fourth quarter 2014 results conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may go ahead and disconnect.