Earnings Labs

TTM Technologies, Inc. (TTMI)

Q3 2014 Earnings Call· Wed, Oct 29, 2014

$153.26

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the TTM Technologies, Inc., Third Quarter 2014 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Tony Righetti [ph]. Please go ahead, sir.

Unknown Executive

Management

Thank you, operator. Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone that comments made on today's call may be -- may contain forward-looking statements. I wish to remind you that any forward-looking information we provide is given in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The comments that will be made today are management's best judgments based on information currently available. Actual results could differ materially from any implied projections due to one or more of the factors explained in the annual report on Form 10-K and other documents that the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. TTM does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or other circumstances, except as required by law. Please refer to the full disclosures regarding the risks that may affect TTM and the risk associated with TTM's proposed acquisition of Viasystems Group, Inc., which may be found in the current report on form 8-K that have been filed by TTM with respect to the proposed acquisition and the company's other SEC filings. In addition to financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, we will discuss on this call certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA. Such measures should not be considered as a substitute for GAAP. We will direct you to the reconciliation included in the company's press release, which was filed with the SEC and is available on TTM's website at www.ttmtech.com. Please note that the following communication is for information purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase nor solicit -- nor a solicitation of an offer to sell, subscribe or buy any securities. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus. Finally, TTM has filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4, which includes a prospectus, with respect to TTM's shares of common stock to be issued in the proposed merger and a proxy statement of Viasystems in connection with the proposed merger. Investors and security holders are advised to read the Proxy Statement prospectus carefully because it contains important information about the proposed merger. I would like to turn the call over to Tom Edman, TTM's Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead, Tom.

Thomas T. Edman

Management

Thank you, Tony [ph]. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our third quarter 2014 conference call. I'll begin with a review of our business, and then provide an update on our recently announced agreement to acquire Viasystems. Todd Schull, our CFO, will follow with a discussion of our financial performance. Then we will open the call to your questions. Let's start with a review of highlights from the third quarter. Net sales in the third quarter were $345.3 million. GAAP net income was $7.7 million or $0.09 per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income was $11 million, or $0.13 per diluted share. We also announced agreement -- the agreement to acquire Viasystems Group, Inc. Both revenue and our non-GAAP earnings were within our guidance ranges. Our third quarter revenue was up sequentially and on a year-over-year basis, and non-GAAP operating income was in line with the third quarter from a year ago. As anticipated, the demand environment improved during the third quarter, as we moved into the seasonally strong second half of the year. We were pleased to see better-than-expected sales in our networking/communications end market, as demand for networking and telecom products remains solid, particularly in Asia. We also experienced a steep ramp in revenues in the mobility market related to customer programs for smartphones and tablets. In the third quarter, the stronger demand for our advanced HDI and rigid-flex PCBs used in smartphones and tablets shifted our product mix towards advanced technology PCBs, and the resulting improvement in revenues led to an increase in sequential gross margin and operating margin. Frankly, we expected to do even better, given the demand climate. An unanticipated 5-day power outage at our advanced technology facility in Asia Pacific interrupted our ramp for new products and contributed to a yield shortfall…

Todd B. Schull

Management

Thanks, Tom, and good afternoon, everyone. For the third quarter, net sales were $345.3 million, an increase of $47.6 million or 16% compared to second quarter net sales of $297.6 million. As Tom said earlier, the sequential increase in sales was due to significant gains in the cellular phone end market. GAAP operating income for the third quarter was $12.3 million compared to operating income for the second quarter of $3.2 million. On a GAAP basis, our net income for the third quarter of 2014 was $7.7 million or $0.09 per diluted share. This compares to a GAAP net loss of $3.1 million or $0.04 per share in the second quarter of 2014. The remainder of my comments will focus on our non-GAAP financial performance. Our non-GAAP performance excludes the amortization of intangibles, stock-based compensation expense, noncash interest expense, restructuring and impairment costs, and costs associated with the early extinguishment of debt, acquisition-related costs and other unusual or infrequent items, as well as the associated tax impact of these items. Additionally, we exclude nonoperational changes in our tax expense, such as impacts of retroactive changes in the tax law. We present non-GAAP financial information to enable investors to see the company through the eyes of management, and to provide better insight into the company's ongoing financial performance. Gross margin in the third quarter was 14.3% compared to 13% in the second quarter. The gross margin increase was due primarily to the increased volume of sales at our advanced technology plants, which allowed us to better utilize those facilities. This improvement was partially offset by the impact of an unanticipated 5-day power outage at our advanced technology facility in Asia Pacific, which interrupted our ramp for new products and contributed to a yield shortfall early in the quarter. Selling and marketing…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Prab Gowrisankaran with Canaccord.

Prabhakar Gowrisankaran - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst · Canaccord

I just want to get some color on the power outage at the advanced tech facility. Did it impact -- I know it impacted the margins a bit. Was there any impact on revenues? And was there a shift that you see? And I -- looks like the problem is solved now. So if you can just provide any more color on it?

Thomas T. Edman

Management

Sure. Yes, there was an impact on revenue, losing 5 days of advanced technology work. Fortunately, it was early in the ramp, so as we were, at that point, building early product, we were able to make up for -- in terms of customer demands, later in the quarter. However, from an overall revenue, yes, we lost a little bit in that month. The greater impact, however, was really on our yield ramp. And you can imagine when you're early in the quarter and you lose significant -- or you have to experience significant downtime. At that point, you're also hiring a significant number of people, and so those people lose the training time that is required in order to improve yields. So now you're doubling up on the force that you have to train, once the equipment comes online again. So you have training challenges and the training challenges then directly lead to your ability to get that yield ramped. Along with the fact that you're bringing up equipment again, bringing it online, and improving processes. So you lose quite a bit of momentum there, in terms of yield improvement.

Prabhakar Gowrisankaran - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst · Canaccord

Okay. And the other question I had was just on the utilization rate that you saw of 80%. I'm assuming Q4 in Asia-Pac would be higher, just because the higher smartphone and advanced tech being used more fully. If you can add some color there. And then on the North America utilization, I know it dropped off. Do you expect the 50%, 54% to be the new baseline? Or you expect a pickup there?

Thomas T. Edman

Management

So in terms of our advanced technology facilities, we were at about 81% in Asia Pacific in this last quarter. So you're absolutely right, as we point to the fourth quarter, we're going to be looking to substantially improve that utilization rate in Asia Pacific, particularly in those advanced technology facilities. In terms of North America, of course, we're looking at a high mix, low volume product focus in North America, so you always expect to have lower utilization rates. We are looking, at this point, at a relatively flat to slightly down in revenue in North America. So from that perspective, I wouldn't expect an immediate improvement in the utilization rates. We also did add a -- some plating capacity into one of our facilities -- our networking telecom facility at Chippewa Falls. That was mainly to address technology requirements of our customer base, but it slightly tilts the utilization calculation as well. And so that was also part of the reason for the downtick in utilization rate as calculated. Longer term, of course, we'll continue to look at the footprint, see -- and look at how we can improve utilization rates in North America.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Matt Sheerin with Stifel. Matthew Sheerin - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division: Just another question regarding the power outage. Is that -- was that just a local issue? What was the reason behind that?

Thomas T. Edman

Management

Sure. Thanks, Matt. It was actually the -- as you know in China, every one -- every year, in the summer, the grid is strained. Sometimes in some -- and often, they are able to make it through the summer months. This year, with about a week's notice, we were informed of a planned outage. That was scheduled for 2 days. And unfortunately, when they took down the power, they discovered that they needed a spare part that wasn't readily available. It took them additional time to bring in that spare part, and that added to the downtime. So that's where they ended up as, actually, as slightly more than 5 days of sustained downtime. So it was local to the industrial park area, and chiefly attributed to the need for a spare part that they just didn't have readily available. Matthew Sheerin - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division: Okay. So well, going forward, do you -- is that they -- and is that something that's just could happen every summer, where you don't really have much visibility?

Thomas T. Edman

Management

Well, so the -- it often depends on their maintenance plans, and the strain on the grid. So generally, it's -- of course the efforts are always made to avoid any impact on industrial production. And I don't think we've had a power outage at least for -- been at least 4 years, 3 or 4 years. So it's not like this happens every year, but with the maintenance cycle and maintenance requirement on top of the summer month strain, I think that's why they chose that particular time to do it. And it is typical to get about a week's notice prior to the maintenance. Matthew Sheerin - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division: Got it. And then looking at your guidance for Q4, you're looking at some modest revenue growth year-over-year. But the midpoint of your guidance implies that margins -- gross margin and operating margin will be slightly below where it was last year. Does the yield issues that you had coming into the quarter, does that still weigh on it a little bit? I'm just trying to figure out why your margins are not at or better than they were a year ago.

Thomas T. Edman

Management

Yes so -- sure. So as we look forward at Q4, from a revenue standpoint, very favorable climate, particularly driven by mobile demand. From an operating standpoint, no question that the sequence of new products that we're working on today present greater yield challenges. I'm pleased to see the improvement, but we -- we're also looking year-on-year, that's going to -- the complexity of the product is going to challenge our ability to get to where we were last year. On top of that, we are seeing this mix in North America and the shift towards assembly also impact our margins. In North America, as I mentioned earlier, is slightly -- being slightly down in terms of our forecasted revenue, would also have an effect.

Todd B. Schull

Management

I just might add one other comment to that. Tom's comments are right on and focused primarily on the gross margins. I think if you looked at our operating margins, I think we're expecting to be relatively similar to last year. So we will get some leverage in our overhead structure and that will yield similar margins. And then in terms of items like below the line, foreign exchange or the tax rates, those are a little bit more unfavorable this year, and that plays into the EPS projections that we provided for this year also. Matthew Sheerin - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division: Got it, that's helpful. And then, if I may, I know it's hard to look out past the quarter, but given the product cycle that your largest mobile customer is going through, trying to get a sense of seasonality heading into Q4. Do you think that it might be less pronounced than typical in the last -- in recent years because of this product cycle? Or is it too hard to tell at this point?

Thomas T. Edman

Management

Always difficult to forecast, but a few comments for you, Matt. The -- I think the fact that we're booked well into December on the cell phone side is a real positive, something that we haven't typically seen in past years. So that is -- that's certainly an indicator of strength going into Q1. We have, on the networking telecom side, continued to receive feedback that 4G growth is expected to resume late in Q4 into early Q1. So that is an encouraging signal. And then thirdly, if you think about Chinese New Year, this coming year, it will actually come later than it has in the past 2, so about 2 weeks later. And that leads to potential for a longer peak season, in terms of seasonal peak. So that, I think, is a third reason to be cautiously optimistic here, as we're heading into Q1 from Q4. Matthew Sheerin - Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division: Okay. And just lastly for me, just quickly on the Viasystems acquisition. Any change -- I mean, you've got a schedule to close it in the first half of next year, in terms of expectations for regulatory approval. How's that going?

Thomas T. Edman

Management

Yes, I think we have all the filings in. That's, as you know, after close, that's the critical piece and that is in our control. And a lot of work from the teams here and certainly at Viasystems, but we've now been able to get those filings in. Now it's always hard to handicap the process, but at least we've been able to pass the baton over to the government authorities. And of course, we're -- we are still confident in our position here. So still hoping for that and looking at that first half of 2015.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Rich Kugele with Needham & Company. David Rold - Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division: David Rold actually in for Rich. So pleased to see the 4G activities expected to resume. I'm wondering if you could kind of give some color there on what changed. And how much visibility you have on that activity beyond next quarter?

Thomas T. Edman

Management

I think, first of all, if you look year-on-year at networking/communications for TTM, we have a pretty positive situation. So if you look year-on-year Q3 against Q3, we're up about 8% in networking/communications overall. On the telecoms side, we characterized this as plateauing, and I really do think we've been accurate in that characterization. So we've come down slightly sequentially, but the year-on-year strength is still there. And as we head into Q4 again, we're projecting slightly down sequentially overall, but the indications from our customers are that they expect that the rollout momentum will pick up. Again, just as I mentioned, late Q4 early into Q1. That seems to be the consistent indication from our customers, and leads us again to be pretty positive about the prospects of that pickup coming again. David Rold - Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division: Okay. And just one more, if I may. Did you guys quantify the bottom line impact of the power outage? Do you have a rough estimate?

Todd B. Schull

Management

It depends on your comparisons, but generally speaking, if you look at what the impact was to us on our gross margins, on a dollar basis, it's going to be -- I hesitate to give you an exact number here, but it probably cost us a percent order of magnitude on our gross margin.

Thomas T. Edman

Management

And this is Tom, I'll just add to that. The quantification is difficult because what we were able to quantify very clearly is the revenue impact of the lost production. What's more difficult to quantify is the effect on yields. And so that's why it's a little bit difficult to quantify that number.

Operator

Operator

And we have no further questions at this time.

Thomas T. Edman

Management

Okay. Well, thank you very much. Thank you for joining us. And we look forward to talking with all of you next quarter.