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Intrinsic Value is all-important and is the only logical way to evaluate the relative attractiveness of investments and businesses.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Delta's Investor Conference today. So as usual, we will have our IR, Rodney, to report the financial numbers of Q1 for you.
So thank you for joining our virtual investor conference today. So now we will review the financial numbers of Q1. So the numbers -- the financial numbers are reported based on IFRS, and the consolidated numbers have been reviewed by CPA. So in terms of the sales, thanks to the gradual improvements in component supply and the little extra contribution from the consolidations of our contribution in Building Automation. Q1 revenue was TWD 82.5 billion, up 14% year-on-year and down only 1% quarter-on-quarter, which was above seasonal. GP in Q1 slightly increased by 1% Q-on-Q and 4% year-on-year. GP margin in Q1 also improved to 27.3% from 26.7% in Q4 2021, but dropped from 29.8% a year ago due to the continuous toughness in the cost environment. Sequentially, both the R&D and SG&A expenses in Q1 remained flattish from the previous quarter. Year-on-year, the R&D expense was up 6%, while the SG&A expense was up 7%. So the OpEx in Q1 was up 7% year-on-year and 0% quarter-on-quarter. Ratio-wise, the R&D expense as a percentage of sales dropped to 8.3% from 8.9% a year ago and slightly increased from 8.2% in Q4 2021. Meanwhile, SG&A as a percentage of sales also contracted to 9.9% in Q1 from 10.5% a year ago and slightly increased from 9.8% in Q4 2021. So the Q4 -- so the Q1 OpEx shrank to 18.3% from 19.5% a year ago and moderately increased from 18.0% in Q4 2021. So therefore, the OP margin in Q1 improved to 9.0% from 8.7% in Q4 2021, but fell from 10.3% a year ago. Year-on-year, we found pretty strong improvements for all segments with infrastructure recovering from the low base and growing faster than the other 2 segments. Sequentially, except for a slight contraction in infrastructure, both electronics and automation remained flattish from the previous quarter, earnings-wise, due to the inflation of the input costs, we saw significant year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter profit contractions for automation. Otherwise, we found year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter profit improvements for both power electronics and infrastructure. So here, we also provide a sales breakdown for the 3 main segments for your reference. So in terms of the nonoperating profit, it was around TWD 1.1 billion in Q1, which was largely within the normal range. So part of the other non-op income came from the recovery of the loss due to the flooding in Thailand late last year. So in Q1, we had 8.3 -- sorry, TWD 8.5 billion profit before tax, up 1% Q-o-Q and down 3% year-on-year. Here, we also provide a EBITDA number for your reference. So in terms of the Q1 tax expense was about TWD 1.7 billion, representing a 20% effective tax rate. So the net profit after tax in Q1 was about TWD 6.1 billion, down 3% Q-o-Q and 8% Y-o-Y. So the EPS in Q1 was TWD 2.33.
So the first question we have here is related to -- do you see any impact from the China's lockdowns on the component supply side or product shipping side? Which one you think is more challenging now?
So for us, the current situation in Wujiang is more challenging because most of our products are produced in Wujiang. But at present, because things actually change -- things are changing like almost every day. So we still keep a close eye to watch the changes of this whole thing on a daily basis. We do see the impact from this China lockdowns, especially in Wujiang -- in our Wujiang plant, especially, we actually -- we are seeing some difficulties in sourcing the supply -- component supplies because there are actually some bottlenecks in the logistics. So hopefully, there might be some improvement in the later months, but we need to pay a close attention on the changes.
So how many -- so the next question is how many production bases are there for the same product, like for individual products?
So maybe I can answer this question because it's actually quite hard to answer because there are no simple rules for this -- for discretion. So because we actually have many different sales locations. So our production bases -- the allocations of our product manufacturing will be based on the customer needs as well as the sales locations as well. So there are actually no single rules for this question.
So the next question is related to the inventory strategy. So will you continue to maintain the higher level of inventory? Like how many safe days are there?
So because we -- actually, we are -- we use a wide range of different components and materials. But for the -- like for the -- some of the components, if we have the local suppliers there, so normally, we only have like about around 0 days, which means that we can actually get components on the day we need. But of course, in this circumstances, I think there things are a little bit different from usual. So because I think for one thing is, there are still some bottleneck in the supply chain, especially after the lockdowns in China. And also, there is still some balance in terms of the component supplies for different components. So we will have a relatively higher inventory level in order to better prepare for the situation.
So the next question is there are actually some noises about end demand lately. Which of Delta's businesses have seen changes in product points?
So our products actually cover a wide range of applications. However, for many of our businesses, such as power supplies, cooling fans and passive components, we provide components to customers rather than find new products. And in addition, the recent pandemic has also impacted the supply chain again. So it's difficult for us to estimate changes in the end market, and we can only respond with the best flexibility. So as far as I know from my own -- from my observation, actually, even myself, I actually got many e-mails from the customers asking us to ship our products to the customers. So it seems like, okay, there is no significant impact on the demand. But we still remain conservative on the consumer electronics and computer products, which are mature markets after all.
So can you comment on the demand on -- for automation in China?
I think that even though there are the demand for automation in China might be impacted by the lockdowns or the pandemic control, but we believe this is a relatively short-term impact because for the long run, there is actually no other options for the manufacturers to -- for not doing this automation -- the factory automation upgrades.
So any chance the production cost may improve in the second half of this year?
So at present, the cost of materials and components is still significantly increased compared to a year ago. However, the increase seems to have gradually converged since Q1. So it is possible that in the second half of the year when the comparison base is already high, the increase will be relatively modest, but that is under the circumstances if there are no more any new or negative surprises in the macro environment.
So the next question is, what is the difference between the requirements of European customers and American customers for electron -- sorry, for EVs? Do you have any cooperation projects with start-up companies?
We think that each OEM has its own requirement and its features as well. So the requirements of different customers will be somewhat different, of course. So it's difficult to simply classify them as European, American and Japanese customers or carmakers. So at present, we do not have many cooperation projects with startups because the resources are limited, and we tend to focus on the leading OEMs at this moment or at this stage. It is difficult to allocate resources to serve small customers. But after a few years, when the entire scale has increased and the resource might be more abundant, maybe we will have some cooperations or resources or capabilities to serve more customers.
So may I ask the proportion of China's production capacity in the total -- the China capacity in the total production capacity of Delta? Will the globalization be accelerated in the future to increase production capacity outside China?
We do continue to accelerate the construction of production capacity outside China, helping to have greater flexibility to serve customers. We actually -- we also have the capacity expansion plans in China as well. But in terms of the overall capacity percentage, so the China capacity in terms of the overall capacity, I think that it's going to remain like at the current level, which is 60% of total capacity.
So your Chairman previously expected double-digit growth for this year. Is the current target adjusted due to the overall inflation and China's lockdowns?
So actually, every year when we do the budget or the target for the companies, we always target -- we always have this internal target to being set in double-digit growth every year. However, because as you can see that there are actually so many uncertainties in the macro environment and especially, if you look at -- if you see the news in China, even though strong -- are actually very difficult to travel or transport among different cities in China, so we are seeing some difficulties and challenges in terms of the logistics. So given there are so many uncertainties, so we are not really able to make any forecast. But hopefully, things can return to normal later on.
So can you give us any guidance for each product line in Q2?
As I said, I think the situation will be greatly affected by the pandemic and city controls in China. So it's really difficult for us to provide any guidance or estimates or even directions at present because things can just change like immediately or rapidly according to the government policies.
So next question is, has the war between Russia and Ukraine affected operations or demand?
I think the war does not seem to have a significant impact on our operations and demand at this moment.
Then can you talk about like what are the main growth drivers of the company this year?
There is a lot of growth momentum this year. A lot of growth drivers this year. So for this year, I think the -- we have some business -- sorry, for this year, we are seeing some recovery for some of our businesses, including the ICT business and then including our business in infrastructure. I think the -- probably the only one is under greater pressure would be our Industrial Automation business because of the current situation in China market.
So will the depreciation of yen improve the competitiveness of Japanese competitors?
Although the yen has depreciated significantly against U.S. dollars, it remains to be seen whether it can improve the competitiveness of the Japanese manufacturers. In the short term, because many Japanese manufacturers, they actually produce their product in China, so for those -- for their products sold and made in China, it's actually difficult to significantly benefit from the depreciation of the yen. And no, so because there is still some pricing gap between the Japanese products and our products. So I think that -- so overall speaking, I don't think that is -- the depreciation of yen is going to significantly improve the competitiveness of Japanese competitors.
So what is the range of gross margin for your EV business? When do you expect to turn a profit?
It's actually not convenient for us to disclose the gross margin of any individual business. However, in last year, when many of the OEMs, they shot at their factories because of the shortage -- component shortage, which also had some net impact on our shipment as well. But for this year, I think things have -- we are seeing some improvements on this side. So this year, we are relatively optimistic about the demand or the growth for this EV business, but still is really subject to the macro environment. But the good news is if you look at our forecast from the leading OEMs in the U.S., they actually also -- they gave really our positive guidance on their EV shipments. So we believe that, that is actually a good news for the EV market.
So can you give any guidance on or make an estimate for this year's server market?
I think that we are relatively optimistic on the server market, where we supply our cooling fans and power supplies for the server market. Because we are still seeing a robust demand from the data center market, so that is the reason why we are relatively positive on the demand outlook for the server-related businesses.
So how do you see the demand in the smartphone market and the growth of your Passive Components business?
I think that the smartphone market itself has actually been saturated for many years. And we actually expected that a long time ago that mobile phone applications will encounter a bottleneck sooner or later. So we started to develop new applications very early, such as the automotive and industrial applications.
So what about the expansion plans for this year and the next year?
We actually have plans to expand our production in many places. So for example, that we have the construction projects in Chongqing in the Sichuan province in China. And we also have this pension plans in Wujiang, Changzhou and Wuhu and Thailand as well. And then we have also completed 1 of the 4 new plants in India. And we are going to study our research or looking for the new manufacturing plants in Europe and U.S.
So how do you see the notebook and PC market in the second half of this year? Do you feel any slowdown in demand?
I think we have largely answered this question earlier. I think it's actually quite difficult to make the predictions for the second half of this year at this moment because currently, there is a certain degree of this connection between the shipment and market demand because of the logistic bottleneck in China.
So can you talk about the impact of the U.S. interest rate hikes on the company's business and costs?
The interest rate hike in the U.S. has led to an increase in interest rates in many countries, including Taiwan. The most direct impact on Delta should be the increase in our capital costs. That is actually the why we intend to issue fixed rate corporate bonds to replace floating rate borrowings. However, market interest rates are rising rapidly. And I'm afraid that in the next few years, we will still have to face higher working capital cost than before.
So what is the current revenue contribution of Delta's energy storage system, like such as its growth rate in the last few years? Are there any key partners currently?
I don't -- it may grow rapidly from a low base in the next few years, but you should still account for a small part or tiny part of the company's overall revenue. But in the future, we believe that the -- considering the current energy market, we believe that demand for this energy storage systems is going to be very strong in the next few years. So that's the reason why we actually -- we are quite positive on the future demand outlook for this business.
So what is the outlook of your 5G telecom power supply this year? Can you share Delta's market share in several major markets?
So with the help of the reopening in Europe and the United States, this year, the telecom power business should see a better growth and recovery than the previous 2 years. In terms of the market share, after we acquired Eltek late in -- a few years ago, so we actually enjoy a pretty high market share in Europe, India, Taiwan, Japan and the U.S. as well, but with relatively low in China because the competition in China is always very severe, and there are also many local manufacturers, better is there. So in order to protect our profitability, sometimes we have to sacrifice some market share.
So can you talk about Delta's long-term plan in renewable energy business and their revenue contributions?
So Delta, our renewable energy-related businesses are still mainly focused on the solar inverters and power converters for wind powers. Considering the revenue scale of the whole company, so those businesses do not account for much of the company's revenue totaling less than 2%.
So what is your progress of capacity expansion in India?
So 1 of the 4 new construction projects in India has been completed and started operation and the sales contribution from our Indian plants accounts for like 2% to 3% of our total revenues. So the reasons for Q1's decline in EPS and after-tax profit compared to the last year, so the net profit after tax in the first quarter decreased by about like TWD 500 million compared to the same period last year, mainly because of the nonoperating profit decreased by more than TWD 200 million, and the noncontrolling interest increased by about TWD 300 million compared to last year. Although the gross profit saw some decline, but revenue growth and lower expense ratios have made up for this. So the operating profit was flattish in the first quarter compared to last year.
So recently, I saw a strategic cooperation between Delta and ROHM. May I ask the company's plan for the third-generation semiconductor?
Actually, we have been investing in the development of such products and has shipped products to customers as early as 2 decades ago. So the so-called third-generation semiconductors refer to the wide-band semiconductor products made of compounds such as gallium nitride and silicon carbide. So we actually have been working with ROHM for long history because we are a power supply maker. So that's the reason why we have the -- we have been working with ROHM for many years. So therefore, we have started this strategic cooperation with ROHM in order to improve the efficiency and reduce the maybe potential cost, the future for our products.
So do you see any impact on the depreciation of NT dollars?
I think in terms of the depreciation of NT dollars, we would be somewhat benefited because we report sales numbers in the U.S. dollars. So in that case or in that sense, we will be somewhat beneficial from this NT dollar depreciation.
So how much of the raw materials or the components accounts for the cost of goods sold in your products?
I think that we actually saw pricing interest almost across board for many different kinds of components and materials. But currently, at present, we think that we are seeing some stabilization in terms of this cost inflation.
So there is actually some shortage for the EV batteries. How do you see this impact on your EV business?
I think going forward in the future, the demand and capacity for EV batteries must continue to go up. Although there are some short-term negative factors impacting this supply of batteries, for example, the war between Ukraine and Russia. But we believe that going forward, people will figure out a way to regret.
So how do you see -- or are there any further value write-downs of your components or inventories in this quarter and in the coming quarters?
I think, of course, there are -- might be some risks if you maintain a relatively higher inventory level. But to be honest, at this moment, it would be more risky to have lower inventory level than have a higher inventory level. So -- and because many people are curious about this -- sorry, the value write-down of the components and materials, so maybe I can give you some more color on this. So I think the value write-down of our products or like the ICs or the chips, by nature, they are different from the value write-down from -- the value write-down of like the food or the [ clothings ] because for the food, especially like the fresh food, when the value is being write-down because the value is actually going down, and there is no way to reverse for its value. But for the electronic components or for the ICs or chips, I think that sooner or later, those components are going to be used for.
So for the companies you acquired in last year, have they started to contribute any revenues to the company?
Yes, of course, because they were actually profitable even before we acquired them. So I also want to share some more views on the inventory level because we actually prepare our inventory according to our order books. So we are not preparing the inventories for no reason or no orders. So the only risk or the only uncertainty would be the changes in the orders like the canceled orders. Otherwise, I think that we have reasons and we have the -- so we actually prepared our inventories level for according to the orders given by our customers. So of course, there might be some risks like, for example, customers may cancel their orders. But I think that it's actually more risky if your clients or your customers give you these orders, but you don't prepare for it.
So can you talk about the backlog of your EV business?
I think that in terms of the life cycle for the EV business is actually pretty long. So for the current products we are producing for the customers is actually based on the orders like we have from our customers like in 2, 3 years ago. So I think the current development of EV market is actually pretty robust and maybe even better than the estimates of many automakers, they previously expected. So if you look at the new products of the leading U.S. OEMs, for example, like including Ford or GM, those are actually the hot-selling products in the EV or the electric trucks market at this moment. So the current problem or the issue is not about the demand, but about the component supply, especially the imbalance of different component supplies.
So in terms of -- because you just mentioned the imbalance of the different component supply, do you see any improvements compared to the previous quarter?
I think that it's actually very hard to give a single answer because we are using like a very wide range of components and materials. So it's quite hard to answer this.
So can you talk about your cooperation with Japanese OEMs?
I suppose you are referring to the Japanese OEM, which didn't believe in the EV, but now it's actually catching up very fast.
So because you just mentioned like there might be some power shortage globally, so Delta, do you have any plans to getting into the power generation business?
I don't think that we are going to have any businesses related to the so-called power generation market. But we will have or we already have the power grid-related business, which is our power energy storage system. So if you ask me about the power generation, we do have our in-house solar power generation, but there is more for our -- but that is mainly for our internal use. And for the plants we are building or constructing, for example, in India, we do try to build up like a solar farm there if we are able to find a big enough farm for our solar power generation.
So any reason for the significant decline in operating profit in Q1?
I think that if you look at, for example, the China IA market, Q1, which was significantly impacted, but the expenses are still there. So that is the main reason for the decline for the automation in Q1. So because the pandemic here is still producing fear, so I hope everyone to stay healthy and stay safe. So thank you for joining us today. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]