Operator
各位女士、先生,大家好。欢迎参加奇景光电股份有限公司2024年第三季度财报电话会议。目前所有参会者均处于只听模式。稍后我们将进行问答环节,届时将提供相关说明。提醒一下,本次电话会议正在录音。现在,我将会议交给奇景光电首席投资者关系/公共关系官Eric Li先生。
Operator
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Himax Technologies Inc. Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Eric Li, Chief IR/PR Officer at Himax.
Eric Li
欢迎各位参加奇景光电2024年第三季度财报电话会议。我是奇景光电投资者关系/公共关系总监Eric Li。今天与我一同出席的有奇景光电总裁兼首席执行官Jordan Wu,以及首席财务官Jessica Pan。在公司准备好的发言之后,我们安排了问答环节的时间。如果您尚未收到今日业绩公告的副本,请发送邮件至HIMX@mzgroup.us或hx_ir@himax.com.tw,通过财经门户网站查阅新闻稿,或从奇景光电官网www.himax.com.tw下载。在开始正式发言前,我想提醒各位,本次电话会议中的部分陈述,包括关于预期未来财务业绩和行业增长的陈述,均为前瞻性陈述,涉及诸多风险和不确定性,可能导致实际事件或结果与本次电话会议中描述的情况存在重大差异。风险因素清单可在公司向美国证券交易委员会提交的截至2023年12月31日年度的20-F表格报告中的"风险因素"章节找到,该报告可能已修订。除公司2023年全年财务数据(已于2024年4月2日提交至SEC的20-F报告中提供)外,本次电话会议中包含的财务信息均为未经审计、按国际财务报告准则编制的合并数据。此类财务信息由内部生成,未经过我们年度合并财务报表所经历的相同审查和审核程序,包括内部审计程序和独立审计师的外部审计,可能与同期经审计的合并财务信息存在重大差异。公司无义务因新信息、未来事件或其他原因而公开更新或修订任何前瞻性陈述。在今天的电话会议上,我将首先回顾奇景光电2024年第三季度的合并财务表现,然后介绍我们对第四季度的展望。随后Jordan将介绍我们业务的现状,之后我们将进行问答环节。您可以通过网络直播或电话在线提交问题。我们将基于国际财务报告准则来审视我们的财务数据。我们很高兴地宣布,尽管面临普遍的经济挑战,第三季度的营收和利润均超出指引,而毛利率则符合2024年8月8日发布的指引。优于预期的财务业绩主要源于汽车、平板电脑和时序控制器产品线更强的订单动能。第三季度营收为2.224亿美元,环比下降7.2%,但显著超出我们给出的环比下降12%至17%的指引区间。毛利率为30.0%,符合我们约30%的指引,但低于上一季度的32.0%和去年同期的31.4%。环比下降是由于不利的产品组合所致。第三季度每稀释ADS利润为7.4美分,远高于1.5美分至4.5美分的指引区间,这得益于优于预期的营收。大尺寸显示驱动芯片营收为3070万美元,环比下降21.2%。下降主要归因于显示器及电视IC销售疲软,这是由于客户在第二季度为购物节大量补货后,面对充满挑战的市场环境进行去库存。相比之下,笔记本IC销售显著增长,这源于主要面板客户对旧款产品的紧急订单。大尺寸面板驱动IC销售额占本季度总营收的13.8%,而上季度为16.3%,去年同期为18.3%。中小尺寸显示驱动芯片部门营收总计1.554亿美元,环比下降2.2%,但远好于我们给出的低双位数下降指引,这得益于汽车和平板电脑市场销售强于预期。第三季度,汽车驱动芯片销售(包括传统DDIC和TDDI)经历了中个位数下降,但仍大幅优于我们预期的高双位数下降。这一优于预期的结果主要得益于上次财报电话会议后不久,中国面板客户的紧急订单,背景是中国政府于8月中旬宣布了新的以旧换新刺激政策,作为其进一步促进汽车消费努力的一部分。我们的汽车业务(包括驱动芯片、时序控制器和OLED销售)在第三季度仍是最大的营收贡献者,占总销售额的近一半。同时,第三季度平板电脑IC销售也超出了环比下降的指引,销售额较上季度略有上升,这得益于主要终端客户的紧急订单。第三季度智能手机IC销售环比实现了不错的双位数增长,这得益于领先手机制造商的新产品发布。中小尺寸驱动IC部门占本季度总销售额的69.9%,而上季度为66.3%,去年同期为67.6%。第三季度非驱动芯片销售额达到3630万美元,较上一季度下降13.1%。这一下降主要由于时序控制器销售环比出现双位数下降,特别是用于显示器的产品,因为客户在上个季度预期购物节期间销售强劲而提前了库存采购。然而,汽车时序控制器销售环比实现了超过30%的显著增长,因为我们的解决方案,尤其是市场领先的区域调光时序控制器,继续被全球主要面板制造商、一级供应商和汽车制造商迅速采用。在第三季度,我们的时序控制器业务占总销售额的9%以上,其中汽车时序控制器贡献显著,占时序控制器销售额的近一半,这得益于超过一百个已获设计定案项目的稳定增长支持。非驱动产品占总营收的16.3%,而上季度为17.4%,去年同期为14.1%。第三季度营业费用为6080万美元,较上一季度增长28.4%,较去年同期下降4.7%。环比增长主要源于每年9月底授予员工的年度奖金薪酬费用,这通常导致第三季度员工薪酬费用高于一年中的其他季度。同比下降主要是由于员工奖金薪酬减少,因为去年奖金的摊销部分高于今年。提醒一下,我们每年9月底向员工授予年度奖金,包括基于全年预期利润的RSU和现金奖励。我们2024年的年度奖金薪酬授予额为1250万美元,符合指引,其中1120万美元在第三季度立即归属并计入费用。相比之下,2023年和2022年的年度奖金分别为1040万美元和3960万美元,其中970万美元和1850万美元立即归属并计入费用。进一步说明,我们第三季度的奖金费用包括两部分。首先,正如我刚才提到的,1120万美元是当年奖金授予中立即归属并确认的部分。其次,270万美元是为往年奖金的摊销部分计提的费用,而上季度为280万美元,去年同期为620万美元。在持续的宏观经济挑战下,我们正在严格执行预算和费用控制,预计2024年全年营业费用将较去年下降中个位数。第三季度营业利润为590万美元,占销售额的2.6%,而上季度为12.2%,去年同期为4.6%。环比下降,除了销售额下降和毛利率收缩外,主要反映了之前提到的年度员工奖金薪酬的差异,总计1120万美元,占销售额的5.1%,这是今年新授予奖金中立即归属并计入费用的部分。营业利润率同比下降主要受销售额下降和毛利率降低驱动。第三季度税后利润为1300万美元,或每稀释ADS 7.4美分,而上季度为2960万美元,或每稀释ADS 16.9美分,去年同期为1120万美元,或每稀释ADS 6.4美分。在计算第三季度税后利润时,我们进行了有利的所得税调整,以纠正今年前几个季度高估的税费,因此税后利润环比有所增加。转向资产负债表,截至2024年9月底,我们拥有2.065亿美元的现金、现金等价物及其他金融资产,而上季度末为2.538亿美元,去年同期为1.554亿美元。现金余额环比下降主要是由于支付了5070万美元的年度股息。第三季度经营活动现金流出约为310万美元,而第二季度为流入2690万美元。流出主要是由于向员工支付了3010万美元的奖金,其中包括今年授予奖金的立即归属部分1080万美元,以及过去三年授予的已归属奖金1930万美元。剔除员工奖金后的经营活动现金流在本季度为流入2700万美元。截至第三季度末,我们有3600万美元的长期无担保贷款,其中600万美元为流动部分。截至2024年9月30日的季度末库存为1.925亿美元,低于上季度的2.037亿美元和去年同期的2.596亿美元,表明库存水平季度间管理良好且平衡。截至2024年9月底的应收账款为2.246亿美元,低于上季度的2.424亿美元和去年同期的2.485亿美元。季度末应收账款周转天数为92天,而上季度为99天,去年同期为95天。第三季度资本支出为260万美元,而上季度为460万美元,去年同期为260万美元。第三季度的资本支出主要用于我们IC设计业务的研发相关设备。截至2024年9月30日,奇景光电已发行ADS为1.750亿股,与上季度基本持平。按完全稀释基础计算,第三季度已发行ADS总数为1.750亿股。现在,转向我们对2024年第四季度的指引。我们预计第四季度营收将环比持平至略微下降。毛利率预计将环比持平至略微上升,具体取决于产品组合。第四季度归属于股东的利润估计在每完全稀释ADS 9.3至11.0美分之间。现在我将把电话交给Jordan,请他讨论我们对第四季度的展望。Jordan,请发言。
Eric Li
Welcome everyone to the Himax Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Eric Li, Chief IR/PR Officer at Himax. Joining me today are Jordan Wu, President and Chief Executive Officer, Jessica Pan, Chief Financial Officer. After the Company’s prepared comments, we have allocated time for questions in a Q&A session. If you have not yet received a copy of today’s results release, please email HIMX@mzgroup.us or hx_ir@himax.com.tw, access the press release on financial portals or download a copy from Himax’s website at www.himax.com.tw. Before we begin the formal remarks, I’d like to remind everyone that some of the statements in this conference call, including statements regarding expected future financial results and industry growth, are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those described in this conference call. A list of risk factors can be found in the Company’s SEC filings, form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023 in the section entitled "Risk Factors", as may be amended. Except for the Company’s full year of 2023 financials, which were provided in the Company’s 20-F and filed with the SEC on April 2, 2024, the financial information included in this conference call is unaudited and consolidated and prepared in accordance with IFRS accounting. Such financial information is generated internally and has not been subjected to the same review and scrutiny, including internal auditing procedures and external audits by an independent auditor, to which we subject our annual consolidated financial statements, and may vary materially from the audited consolidated financial information for the same period. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. On today’s call, I will first review the Himax consolidated financial performance for the third quarter 2024, followed by our fourth quarter outlook. Jordan will then give an update on the status of our business, after which we will take questions. You can submit your questions online through the webcast or by phone. We will review our financials on an IFRS basis. We are delighted to announce that Q3 revenues and profits both surpassed guidance, while gross margin was in-line with the guidance issued on August 8, 2024, despite prevailing economic challenges. The better-than-expected financial results stemmed primarily from stronger order momentum in automotive, tablet and Tcon product lines. Third quarter revenues registered $222.4 million, a decrease of 7.2% sequentially, yet significantly exceeded our guidance range of a 12% to 17% decrease. Gross margin came in at 30.0%, in-line with our guidance of around 30%, but down from 32.0% in the previous quarter and 31.4% in the same period last year. The sequential decline was a result of unfavorable product mix. Q3 profit per diluted ADS was 7.4 cents, considerably above the guidance range of 1.5 cents to 4.5 cents due to better-than-expected revenues. Revenue from large display drivers came in at $30.7 million, reflecting a sequential decrease of 21.2%. The decrease was primarily attributed to weaker monitor and TV IC sales due to customers’ de-stocking amid challenging market conditions following substantial Q2 replenishment for shopping festivals. In contrast, notebook IC sales increased notably, resulting from rush orders for legacy products from leading panel customers. Sales of large panel driver ICs accounted for 13.8% of total revenues for the quarter, compared to 16.3% last quarter and 18.3% a year ago. Revenue from the small and medium-sized display driver segment totaled $155.4 million, a decline of 2.2% sequentially but significantly better than our guidance of a low-teens decline, thanks to stronger-than-expected sales in the automotive and tablet markets. In Q3, automotive driver sales, which include both traditional DDIC and TDDI, experienced a mid-single digit decrease, yet largely outperformed our expectation of a high teens decline. This better-than-expected result was primarily fueled by rush orders from our Chinese panel customers shortly after our last earnings call on the backdrop of the Chinese government’s renewed trade-in stimulus announcement made in mid-August, as part of their efforts to further boost automobile consumption. Our automotive business, comprising drivers, Tcon, and OLED sales, remained the largest revenue contributor in the third quarter, representing nearly half of total sales. Meanwhile, Q3 tablet IC sales also exceeded guidance of a sequential decline, with sales slightly up from last quarter, fueled by rush orders from leading end customers. Q3 smartphone IC sales increased a decent double-digit sequentially, thanks to new product launches of leading phone makers. The small and medium-sized driver IC segment accounted for 69.9% of total sales for the quarter, compared to 66.3% in the previous quarter and 67.6% a year ago. Third quarter non-driver sales reached $36.3 million, a decline of 13.1% from the previous quarter. This decrease was primarily driven by a double-digit sequential decline in Tcon sales, particularly for monitor application, as customers pulled forward their inventory purchases in the prior quarter anticipating strong sales during the shopping festivals. However, automotive Tcon sales saw an impressive sequential increase of over 30%, as our solutions, especially the market leading local dimming Tcon, continue to be rapidly adopted by major panel manufacturers, Tier 1 suppliers, and automotive manufacturers worldwide. In the third quarter, our Tcon business accounted for over 9% of total sales, with notable contributions from automotive Tcon, representing almost half of Tcon sales, supported by steady growth with well over one hundred secured design-win projects. Non-driver products accounted for 16.3% of total revenues, as compared to 17.4% in the previous quarter and 14.1% a year ago. Third quarter operating expenses were $60.8 million, an increase of 28.4% from the previous quarter and a decline of 4.7% from a year ago. The sequential increase stemmed primarily from the expense for annual bonus compensation which we award employees at the end of September each year, typically resulting in higher Q3 employee compensation expense compared to other quarters of the year. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to a decline in employee bonus compensation as the amortized portion of prior year’s bonuses for last year was higher than that for this year. As a reminder, we grant annual bonuses to employees at the end of September each year, including RSU and cash awards based on the expected profit for the full year. Our annual bonus compensation grant for 2024 was $12.5 million, in line with guidance, out of which $11.2 million, was immediately vested and expensed in the third quarter. In comparison, the annual bonuses for 2023 and 2022 were $10.4 million and $39.6 million respectively, of which $9.7 million and $18.5 million were vested and expensed immediately. To further elaborate, our Q3 bonus expense includes two portions. First, as I just mentioned, $11.2 million was the allocation for the immediately vested and recognized portion of the current year’s bonus grant. Second, $2.7 million was expensed for the amortized tranches of prior years’ bonuses, compared to $2.8 million last quarter and $6.2 million a year ago. Amid ongoing macroeconomic challenges, we are strictly enforcing budget and expense controls, with full-year 2024 OPEX projected to decline mid-single digit compared to last year. Third quarter operating income was $5.9 million or 2.6% of sales, compared to 12.2% last quarter and 4.6% of sales for the same period last year. The sequential decrease, aside from lower sales and a contraction in gross margin, primarily reflected the difference in annual employee bonus compensation, as mentioned earlier, totaling $11.2 million or 5.1% of sales, the immediately vested and expensed portion of this year’s new grant. The year-over-year decrease in operating margin was mainly driven by a decline in sales and lower gross margins. Third-quarter after-tax profit was $13.0 million, or 7.4 cents per diluted ADS, compared to $29.6 million, or 16.9 cents per diluted ADS last quarter, and $11.2 million, or 6.4 cents in the same period last year. In calculating the Q3 after-tax profit, we made a favorable income tax adjustment to rectify overestimated tax expenses for preceding quarters this year, hence the sequential increase in after-tax profit. Turning to the balance sheet, we had $206.5 million of cash, cash equivalents and other financial assets at the end of September 2024, compared to $253.8 million a quarter ago and $155.4 million at the same time last year. The sequential decrease in cash balance was mainly the result of a $50.7 million payment for annual dividends. Operating cash outflow for the third quarter was approximately $3.1 million, compared to an inflow of $26.9 million in Q2. The outflow was primarily due to $30.1 million paid to employees for their bonuses, which included $10.8 million for the immediately vested portion of this year’s award and $19.3 million for vested awards granted over the past three years. Operating cashflow excluding employee bonus was a $27.0 million inflow during the quarter. We had $36.0 million of long-term unsecured loans as of the end of the third quarter, of which $6.0 million was the current portion. Our quarter-end inventories as of September 30, 2024 were $192.5 million, lower than the $203.7 million last quarter and $259.6 million in the same period last year, indicating a well-managed and balanced inventory level from quarter to quarter. Accounts receivable at the end of September 2024 was $224.6 million, down from $242.4 million last quarter and $248.5 million a year ago. DSO was 92 days at the quarter end, as compared to 99 days last quarter and 95 days a year ago. Third quarter capital expenditures were $2.6 million, versus $4.6 million last quarter and $2.6 million a year ago. The third quarter capex was mainly for R&D related equipment for our IC design business. As of September 30, 2024, Himax had 175.0 million ADS outstanding, little changed from last quarter. On a fully diluted basis, the total number of ADS outstanding for the third quarter was 175.0 million. Now, turning to our fourth quarter 2024 guidance. We expect fourth quarter revenues to be flat to slightly down sequentially. Gross margin is expected to be flat to slightly up sequentially, depending on product mix. The fourth quarter profit attributable to shareholders is estimated to be in the range of 9.3 to 11.0 cents per fully diluted ADS. I will now turn the call over to Jordan to discuss our Q4 outlook. Jordan, the floor is yours.
Jordan Wu
翻译中...
Jordan Wu
Thank you, Eric. Looking ahead to Q4, the macro environment remains challenging. Panel customers are reducing production to stabilize panel prices in response to the current market conditions. At the same time, end brands are also taking a cautious approach to panel procurement and maintaining low inventory levels. Taken together, these factors have suppressed IC demand, leading to our conservative outlook for the fourth quarter. Against this backdrop, we continue to strictly manage expenses and implement various cost optimization measures, including enhancing manufacturing and operational efficiency, as well as leveraging a diverse range of vendors in foundries and backend suppliers. Looking ahead, while the global economy still looks uncertain, we are confident in the business outlook of several key areas, namely automotive, AI, WLO, and OLED, and expect these product lines to drive significant growth of our business. First let me elaborate on the automotive sector, our primary revenue contributor. We remain optimistic in our long-term outlook as the automotive display market continues to expand through innovation and technological advancements. Our confidence also stems from our comprehensive offering and leading position in the market, particularly in the areas of LCD TDDI, OLED, and Tcon, all of which are relatively new and cutting-edge technologies for automotive display. These technologies are expected to see continued adoption, providing us with sustainable long-term growth opportunities. It’s worth noting that there have been significant fluctuations in automotive market demands in recent quarters, particularly from the Chinese market, which accounts for over 30% of global vehicle sales. Government policies, subsidies, and aggressive discount campaigns by car manufacturers have made supply and demand less predictable, creating new challenges for automotive IC suppliers. Automotive ICs, unlike consumer electronics products, feature rigorous safety and reliability standards, resulting in longer production lead time, which poses greater challenges in handling customers’ rush orders. However, thanks to our dominant market share and substantial shipment volume in the automotive sector, we are well-equipped to navigate these market fluctuations. In fact, our ability to respond to these last-minute demands for automotive ICs was instrumental in our better than expected third quarter financial results, with final revenues exceeding the midpoint of our guidance by as much as 7%. The higher revenues were driven primarily by rush orders that arose after our last earnings call held in the middle of the third quarter. Indeed, being able to quickly respond to changing customer needs has become a crucial competitive advantage in the automotive IC sector for us. In terms of our WLO business, we are confident in our collaboration with FOCI on the LPO/CPO business where I am pleased to share that we are making decent progress in the initial small-scale production of the first-generation solution. Demand for high-speed optical communication technology is surging, driven by advancements in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. Moreover, Himax and FOCI, along with world-leading AI semiconductor companies and foundry partner, have begun new technology development for future generation products. We believe this will create new revenue streams for Himax and make a significant contribution to our total revenue and profit in the coming years. With that, I’ll now begin with an update on the large panel driver IC business. In Q4, we anticipate a double-digit sequential sales decrease for large display driver ICs due to soft holiday shopping demand expectations, ongoing customers destocking since Q2, and intensified China local competition. As I just mentioned, panel manufacturers are strategically reducing production to safeguard panel prices while end brands are enforcing strict procurement control in response to soft demand and maintaining low inventory levels. Looking ahead in the notebook sector, the emergence of AI PC is prompting display upgrades towards OLED displays and displays equipped with touch features. Through strategic collaborations with leading panel makers in Korea and China, Himax is well positioned to capitalize on this trend, offering a comprehensive range of notebook IC products including DDIC, Tcon, and touch controller for OLED displays and TDDI and Tcon for LCD display. First on TDDI for LCD, we are pioneering in-cell touch TDDI for notebook LCD display. Our state-of-the-art in-cell touch TDDI solution features a proprietary architecture where the touch controller is embedded inside the TDDI chip with the display portion of the TDDI taking advantage of the conventional display driver configuration to convey Tcon data to drive the panel. This allows customers to maintain the existing Tcon adoption, substantially reducing their product development effort and enhancing production flexibility. Additionally, the TDDI features high integration, multi-chip cascade, and increased channel output, enabling higher resolution of up to 4K and larger screen of up to 16 inches, with compact PCB and narrower bezel designs, making it suitable for both mainstream and high-end LCD laptops. In the third quarter, our newly introduced in-cell touch TDDI successfully entered mass production for a prominent brand’s first AI PC. Several projects are also in progress with other brands for their upcoming notebook models. The second area of focus is OLED, which is seeing increasing adoption in premium laptops. In addition to our OLED DDIC and Tcon solutions, we are also pioneering on-cell touch control technology on notebook OLED display. Multiple projects with top panel and laptop leaders are underway. Finally, we are developing the next generation eDP 1.5 display interface for Tcon, applicable to both LCD and OLED panels, supporting high frame rates, low power panel replay, adaptive sync, and high-resolution. We aim to launch our eDP 1.5 Tcon in the second half of 2025. We are confident that, with these initiatives, Himax will be the frontrunner for next-gen AI PCs and premium notebooks. With several projects slated for mass production starting in 2025, we believe our LCD and OLED notebook solutions will act as growth catalysts for our notebook IC business for the coming years. Turning to the small and medium-sized display driver IC business, we anticipate fourth quarter revenue to be flat sequentially. Automotive IC revenue in Q4 is expected to resume growth and increase single digit sequentially, mainly supported by ongoing China market promotional events and the Chinese government’s renewed trade-in stimulus policies as earlier mentioned. Notably, our automotive driver IC sales for the full year 2024 are projected to grow high-teens year-over-year, significantly outperforming global automotive growth, primarily driven by continued expansion of TDDI adoption among all major end customers worldwide. In the automotive TDDI sector, we continue to strengthen our market dominance with cumulative shipments already exceeding 70 million units, far surpassing those of our competitors. With nearly 500 design-in projects secured and only about 30% currently in mass production, we continue to see substantial growth potential ahead. Remarkably, our Q4 automotive TDDI sales are set to surpass DDIC sales for the first time, highlighting the widespread adoption of our solutions worldwide, along with growing demand for more intuitive, interactive, and cost competitive touch panel features enabled by TDDI solutions. While our full year 2024 traditional automotive DDIC sales are expected to decline as they are partially replaced by TDDI, our shipping quantity for DDIC is set to see a modest increase. This is indicative of the product’s long-life cycle as many of our customers’ legacy models will not be retired for years, and many displays, such as cluster display, HUD, or rear- and side-view mirrors, do not require touch feature. We remain the leader of the automotive DDIC market, with approximately 40% global market share. Meanwhile, an emerging market trend shows more customers are opting for Himax’s TDDI or LTDI, coupled with our local dimming Tcon, as their standard development platforms for new automotive displays across various sizes and applications. This growing platform adoption of more of our automotive IC offerings not only reflects strong customer loyalty to our technologies and services but also signifies the increase in content value for Himax on a per-panel basis. Himax is widely recognized as the leader in the automotive display IC market, offering the industry’s broadest range of products with leading market share in each of the product areas. The diverse range of offerings allows us to address different customer needs and adapt to changing market trends, thereby strengthening our market presence and boosting potential revenue. Our newly introduced TED (Tcon Embedded Driver IC) solution, which combines TDDI with local dimming Tcon into a single chip, exemplifies our commitment to providing customers with more competitive, flexible and broader options. This solution is ideal for smaller panels that typically require only 1 to 2 ICs for cost consideration, while still offering advanced touch and local dimming features. Production is set to begin in early 2025 with several projects and engagements currently underway with major customers. Meanwhile, we are actively collaborating with automotive Tier 1 partners to develop more advanced, innovative and/or cost optimized solutions tailored to various market needs. This not only underscores our customers’ confidence in our technology leadership but also reflects their commitment to engaging with us in future roadmap collaborations. Moving to smartphone IC sales, we anticipate Q4 to slightly decline sequentially with ongoing shipment to key customers. Q4 tablet IC sales are projected to decline low teens sequentially, as end customers are extending their replacement cycles due to challenging economic conditions. Next for an update on our OLED business. In the automotive OLED market, we have formed strategic partnerships with leading panel manufacturers in Korea, China, and Japan. As OLED technology gains traction beyond premium car models, Himax is well-positioned as the preferred partner, thanks to our strong presence and proven track records in the LCD automotive display sector. Leveraging our first-mover advantage, we look to capitalize on the growing adoption of OLED in automotive displays by offering a comprehensive range of OLED solutions, including DDIC, Tcon, and on-cell touch controller. We believe this positions us as the primary beneficiary of the growing adoption of OLED display in automotive. For instance, our advanced OLED on-cell touch controllers are setting new industry standards with an impressive touch signal-to-noise ratio of over 45 dB, ensuring reliable performance under challenging conditions such as glove-wearing or wet-finger operations. Our OLED on-cell touch controller for automotive applications entered production last quarter and adoption is expanding across the board. With additional projects starting mass production next year, we expect this segment’s contribution to our revenues to increase starting in 2025. Beyond the automotive sector, we have made notable advances in the tablet and notebook sectors with top OLED panel manufacturers in Korea and China. Our comprehensive OLED product offerings, encompassing DDIC, Tcon, and touch controllers, have led to several new projects that are on track to enter mass production during Q4 and as we move into 2025. Regarding smartphone OLED, we expect mass production to commence next year. Currently, we are making good progress in collaborations with customers in Korea and China on several verification and partnership projects. Additionally, we are building strong, long-term partnerships with leading OLED players to enhance our market position. I’d like to now turn to our non-driver IC business update where we expect the fourth quarter revenue to increase mid-teens sequentially. First for an update on our Tcon business. We anticipate Q4 Tcon sales to increase mid-teens sequentially, driven by automotive and a one-time ASIC Tcon product shipment to a leading projector customer. Automotive Tcon business is expected to achieve high-teens growth sequentially, driven by the shipment of secured design wins. For the full year, our automotive Tcon business is projected to grow over 80% compared to last year, contributing to nearly 4% of our total sales. Moving forward, we are confident in the strong growth trajectory in the automotive Tcon business, backed by our dominant local dimming Tcon market position with over one hundred design-win projects, of which only a small portion are currently in mass production and new design-ins continuing to expand. Many panel houses, Tier 1s, and OEMs worldwide have now expanded the adoption of our leading-edge local dimming Tcon solutions from premium to mainstream car models. We are well positioned for decent growth in automotive Tcon over the next few years. Despite subdued end-market demand, we are actively developing next-generation OLED Tcon ICs for tablets, notebooks, and automotive applications. This proactive approach not only broadens and diversifies our product offerings, but also helps us navigate through industry shifts towards wider adoption of OLED displays across applications. Some of our newly developed Tcon ICs for OLED tablets and notebooks are already showing promising results. For automotive OLED Tcon, an area rich with exciting growth potential, we began production in 2021 and anticipate new product launches with advanced feature enhancements in 2025. Switching gears to the WiseEye™ Ultralow Power AI Sensing solution, a cutting-edge endpoint AI integration featuring industry-leading ultralow power AI processor, always-on CMOS image sensor, and advanced CNN-based AI algorithm. In the fast-changing AI landscape, WiseEye AI technology stands out for its expertise in on-device tinyML microcontroller solutions, characterized by remarkably low power consumption, operating at just single-digit milliwatts, making it possible to add AI functionalities to battery-powered endpoint devices. Our WiseEye technology is unlocking new opportunities across various applications, particularly in endpoint devices for everyday life. A prime example is the smart door lock. Stemming from our collaboration with DESMAN, a leading vendor in China’s high-end smart door lock market, we are expanding use cases with other world-leading door lock makers across continents by integrating innovative AI features such as parcel recognition, smart anti-pinch protection, and palm vein biometric access. This approach targets diverse home security markets that value WiseEye’s ultralow power consumption and on-device AI capabilities, which are crucial for battery-powered endpoint AI devices. Next for an update on our WiseEye module business. We continue to offer a diverse range of plug-and-play modules, collaborating with ecosystem partners and third-party system integrators to develop pretrained no-code and low-code AI solutions with the goal of lowering barriers and timelines for developers entering the AI space. Progress is being made across various domains, including smart parking, access control, palm vein authentication, smart offices, smart homes, and more. Among these, Himax PalmVein solution, which is part of our WiseEye AI module business, has garnered significant attention and positive feedback from customers since its launch early this year. It has already been adopted by a U.S. customer for smart access control systems and is on track to begin mass production by the end of the year. Extensive engineering activities of WiseEye PalmVein are ongoing with world-leading players across various industries, including smart door locks, access control, notebooks, and automotive, among others. The WiseEye PalmVein solution integrates the Himax WiseEye2 AI processor, an AoS CMOS sensor, and a proven palm vein authentication algorithm. It features an ultralow power, compact module capable of authenticating an individual’s identity in under 100 milliseconds while consuming only a few milliwatts of power, ideal for battery-charged, on-device AI endpoint applications. Palm vein authentication utilizes unique internal vein patterns that are difficult to replicate or spoof. In addition to exceptional low power consumption, WiseEye PalmVein provides robust security and reliability with industry-leading low rates of false acceptance and rejection, making it nearly impossible to bypass or misidentify. Equally important, WiseEye PalmVein processes identification locally, eliminating privacy risk associated with cloud access required for solutions that perform authentication remotely. We anticipate increasing sales contribution from WiseEye PalmVein across a diverse array of applications starting next year and are excited about the strong customer interest and opportunity for rapid growth in our WiseEye module business. Now switching to a quick update on WLO. In June of this year, Himax joined forces with FOCI, a global leader in silicon photonics connectors, to announce the launch of an industry-leading optical communication solution designed for the most advanced multi-chip modules. Himax and FOCI are currently progressing through the small-scale production phase of our first-generation solution designed for the LPO architecture. In addition, Himax, in collaboration with FOCI, along with leading global AI IC design companies and foundry partner, has commenced development for next-generation technologies, with the objective of incorporating these advancements into more sophisticated CPO architectures. Leveraging our years of WLO engineering expertise, Himax has meticulously designed and developed nano-scale precision optical systems for LPO/CPO. In the LPO/CPO optical solution, our precision-engineered optical design and manufacturing technologies ensure that the optical signals in each fiber couple precisely with the silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) in the LPO/CPO optical components. This achieves high precision, low loss, and high-speed transmission to meet the demands of silicon photonic transmission in high-speed computing. In addition to the progress made in LPO/CPO, we are seeing an increase in engineering collaborations with global technology leaders who are leveraging our WLO expertise for AR/VR and a range of other applications, underscoring the widespread recognition of our technology. We believe that WLO will make a significant contribution to our overall revenue and profit in the coming years. That concludes my report for this quarter. Thank you for your interest in Himax. We appreciate you joining today’s call and are now ready to take questions.
Operator
现在我们将进行第一个提问环节。野村证券的Donnie Teng,请提问。
Operator
Now we’ll have our first question. Donnie Teng, Nomura. Go ahead, please.
Donnie Teng
谢谢Jordan和Eric回答我的问题。我的第一个问题是关于你们的汽车业务。根据你们的指引,第四季度汽车驱动IC销售额将环比增长个位数百分比。但当我们看一些同行的公告时,比如联咏科技、瑞鼎科技,他们都提到第四季度汽车驱动IC销售额可能会环比小幅下降。另外,我记得过去几个月里,汽车业务似乎相当波动。您知道,客户在几个月内增加订单又削减订单。那么,是什么导致这种波动如此之大?我们对于第四季度在汽车业务方面超越同行有多大信心?谢谢。
Donnie Teng
Thank you, Jordan, and Eric, for taking my question. My first question is regarding to your automotive business. So based on your guidance, automotive driver IC sales in fourth quarter will be growing like single digits sequentially. But when we look at some of peers’ announcements, like, for example, Novatek, like Raydium, they all mentioned about that automotive driver IC sales in fourth quarter may decline a little bit sequentially. And also, I remember that back in the past few months, it seems like the automotive business was pretty volatile. You know, customers adding orders and cut orders within a couple of months. So, what makes this kind of volatility that big? And how confident we are to outperforming our peers in terms of automotive business into fourth quarter? Thank you.
Jordan Wu
感谢您的提问。如您所知,我们始终充满信心,并且在提供指引时总是相对保守。因此当我们说第四季度汽车整体业务预计将增长时,我们是认真的。与上一季度类似,我们看到了大量紧急订单,幸运的是,由于我在准备好的发言中提到的原因,我们能够满足这些订单。我认为客户对此表示赞赏,因为奇景光电拥有领先的市场地位,并且作为市场份额领先者,我们正在履行满足此类紧急订单的责任。我认为第四季度增长的主要原因实际上是第三季度末紧急订单的延续。中国正在更新其刺激计划,这促使汽车制造商以及在很大程度上促使消费者在激励计划到期前进行购买。我认为这就是我们目前看到的情况。话虽如此,我们对我们第四季度的预测非常有信心。然而,我们对第一季度的前景信心不足。因此,也许更重要的问题是,我们对2025年的前景如何?我知道您没有问这个问题,但我想这可能是阐述我们前景的好机会。再次强调,我们对我们在全球汽车供应链中持续保持市场份额领先地位以及与客户的紧密合作非常有信心。然而,坦率地说,我们对2025年汽车业务的能见度不高。这主要是由于宏观环境在政治和经济方面的不确定性。我想我不需要进一步阐述这一点,我们都知道我在谈论什么不确定性。尽管如此,无论宏观环境如何,我们对明年进一步增长汽车TDDI业务感到相当满意,正如您所知,TDDI已经超过DDIC,成为我们目前最大的收入来源。我们的信心源于大量尚未进入量产的设计中标项目,以及汽车领域in-cell TDDI的渗透率预计仍将进一步增长,尽管肯定不会像过去几年那样高速增长。我们对2025年增长局部调光Tcon以及LTDI业务的信心甚至更高,原因非常相似,即手头已有大量设计中标项目以及主导的市场地位。实际上,我们现在预计Tcon明年将实现相当不错的两位数增长。而对于LTDI,由于基数相对较低,明年实际上将实现三位数增长。再次强调,我们对这一前景相当有信心。然而,对于传统的DDIC明年,我不能说同样的话。如您所知,市场整体DDIC出货量预计将有所下降。它正部分被TDDI取代。但对于不需要触摸功能的应用,它仍有稳固的需求。因此,明年我们汽车DDIC的业务将在很大程度上取决于整体汽车出货量。我们并不真的预期市场份额会下降,但以我们40%的市场份额(已经相当高),我们也不能真正预测市场份额会进一步大幅增长。如果我想完整地讲述这个故事,让我也展望一下2026年和2027年。我们可能会看到我们的OLED汽车业务开始起飞。我们已经与韩国、中国和日本的领先客户就新一代项目展开非常密切的合作,这些项目已进入与Tier1和ODM的设计导入阶段,涉及我们所有的OLED DDIC、Tcon和on-cell触摸解决方案,正如我们刚才提到的,我们的触摸解决方案已进入早期量产阶段。因此,虽然汽车OLED将是2026年及以后的故事,但我们相信当它发生时,它将成为奇景光电的主要增长引擎,因为我们目前正在经历的不仅仅是面板制造商,还包括Tier 1和OEM为其高端车型进行的非常、非常繁忙的设计导入活动。希望这能解答您的问题。
Jordan Wu
Thank you for the question. As you know, we are always very confident and always, for somehow, we are always on the conservative side when we provide our guidance. So when we say the Q4 automotive overall business is likely to, is projected to grow, I mean, we certainly, we mean business. And similar to the last quarter, we are seeing a lot of rush orders, which, you know, fortunately, we are able to fulfill because of the reasons I mentioned earlier in my prepared remarks. And I think the customers appreciate that, the fact that Himax, you know, has the leading market position and also is fulfilling our responsibility, right, you know fulfilling such rush orders, for being the leading market share player. And I think that the main reason for the Q4 is really a continuation of the last-minute Q3 rush orders. You know, China is renewing its stimulus plan, and that is rushing the car makers and, to a great extent, consumers to make their purchases before the incentive plan expires. And I think that is what we’re seeing. Having said that though, so again, we are very confident about our projection for Q4. We are, however, less confident on the prospect of Q1. So perhaps, you know, a more important question is, what is our prospect for 2025? I know you didn’t ask that question, but I think it’s probably a good opportunity for me to elaborate a little bit on our prospect here. So again, we are very confident about our continued market share leadership and close engagement with our customers across the global automotive supply chain. However, we don’t have good visibility, to be quite honest, for our automotive business for 2025. And this is mainly because of the uncertainty related to the macro environment, both politically and economically. I think I don’t need to elaborate further on that. We all know what I’m talking about, you know, about the uncertainty. Nevertheless, regardless of the macro environment, we are quite comfortable about further growing our automotive TDDI business next year, which, surpassing DDIC, is already our largest source of revenue right now, as you know. Our confidence stems from our large number of design-win projects which are yet to enter mass production and the penetration of in-cell TDDI for automotive, which is still projected to somehow grow further, although certainly not at the same kind of high growth rate that we got to enjoy over the last few years. Our confidence level is even higher for growing our local dimming Tcon as well as LTDI business in 2025 for very similar reasons, i.e. a large number of design-win projects already in hand and dominant market position. We are actually now projecting for the Tcon to grow a rather decent double digit next year. And for LTDI, starting from a relatively low base, to grow triple digit actually, next year. Again, we are fairly confident about this prospect. However, I can’t say the same for traditional DDIC for next year. As you know, the overall DDIC volume of the market is projected to decline somehow. It is being partially replaced by TDDI. But it still has solid demands for applications that do not require touch features. So, the business next year for our automotive DDIC will depend largely on the overall automotive shipment. We don’t really expect our market share to decline, but we can’t really, with our 40% market share, which is already quite high, we can’t really project our market share to grow much further either. If I try to complete the story, let me also look further ahead into 2026 and 2027. We are likely to see our OLED business taking off for automotive. We are already collaborating very closely with leading customers in Korea, China, and Japan on new generation projects that are already in design-in stage with Tier1s and ODMs involving all of our DDIC, Tcon and on-cell touch solutions for OLED, with our touch already in early stage of mass production, as we just mentioned. So while the automotive OLED will be the story of 2026 and beyond, we believe it will represent a major growth engine for Himax when it happens, because as what we are experiencing right now is very, very busy design-in activities with not just panel makers but also Tier 1s and OEMs for their high-end models. So I hope that addresses your question.
Donnie Teng
谢谢,Jordan。关于这一点我再追问一下,正如我提到的,一些同行提到第四季度可能会环比略有下降。那么除了整体客户情况似乎在年底有所改善之外,是否有任何具体的公司原因推动我们的汽车销售表现优于同行?
Donnie Teng
Thank you, Jordan. Another follow-up on this, as I mentioned, some of the peers mentioned about fourth quarter may sequentially decline a little bit. So other than the overall customer situation seems like getting better towards the end of this year, is there any specific company reason to drive our automotive sales to be, outperforming of peers?
Jordan Wu
我当然不知道我们的同行发生了什么情况,但我们看到的这些紧急订单实际上并非来自一两个单一客户。实际上,这些订单几乎遍布各个面板制造商,涵盖DDIC、TDDI以及Tcon。我记得很清楚,我们的汽车Tcon产品生产周期非常长,我们正在努力满足客户需求,幸运的是我们能够做到。但同时,我们也在向客户抱怨这种情况不应该再发生了,因为部分靠运气,我们才能为生产周期长的Tcon产品完成交付。如果下次再发生这种情况,我们真的无法保证。但无论如何,我想说的是,这些紧急订单实际上不仅来自中国,也来自其他国家的面板制造商、一级供应商和汽车厂商。
Jordan Wu
I certainly don’t know what is happening with our peers, but we are seeing these rush orders actually coming from not just one or two single customer. It is actually widespread from almost across the board, various panel makers and covering both DDIC and TDDI and Tcon actually. And I recall very vividly, with our automotive Tcon, which has actually very, very long production lead time, and we are scrambling to meet the customer’s demand, which luckily, we are able to achieve. However, in the meantime, we are complaining to the customer that this should not happen anymore because, you know, partially by luck, we are able to make the delivery for Tcon, and with its long production lead time. If it happens next time, we can’t really guarantee it. But anyway, what I’m trying to say is the rush orders actually came from not just Chinese, also other countries’ panel makers, Tier1s, and automotives.
Donnie Teng
明白了。我的第二个问题是关于CPO的进展。我想知道,首先,看起来第四季度非驱动IC销售增长主要由Tcon推动。那么,CPO在第四季度是否发挥了任何作用?或者我们应该如何看待CPO的更新进展?
Donnie Teng
Understood. My second question is regarding to the CPO progress. I’m wondering if you, okay, firstly, it looks like non-driver IC sales growth in fourth quarter was primarily driven by Tcon. So, is CPO playing any role there in fourth quarter yet? Or how should we look at the update progress there for CPO?
Jordan Wu
答案是否定的,第四季度没有。在第四季度,我们确实看到了一些来自这方面的少量收入,从第四季度开始。这些是早期、非常早期、数量非常小的客户出货,用于工程验证和试生产目的。因此,用于CPO的WLO并没有真正为第四季度的非驱动增长做出贡献。
Jordan Wu
The answer is no, not in Q4. In Q4, we do see some small amount of revenue from this, starting from Q4. These are early, very early, very small quantity shipment for customers, engineering verification and trial production purposes. So WLO for CPO doesn’t really contribute to our non-driver growth for Q4.
Donnie Teng
明白了。您对未来进展有任何更新吗?我的意思是,我们何时才能看到CPO方面更有意义的进展或销售贡献?关于时间表和行业动态是否有任何更新?
Donnie Teng
I see. Do you have any update on the future progress? I mean, when exactly we will see more meaningful progress or sales contribution from CPO? Is there any update on the schedule and the industry dynamics as well.
Jordan Wu
好的,这个问题问得很好。让我详细阐述一下。在我们的准备发言中,我们提到了正在研发下一代技术和产品。那么,您可能会想知道这些具体是什么以及时间安排,因此您提出了关于明年或后年潜在贡献的问题。简单来说,我们正在努力将越来越多的光纤线路挤入非常有限的空间,这是一个巨大的工程挑战。众所周知,使用LPO/CPO技术的主要目的之一是大幅提高先进多芯片模块的数据传输速率,也就是我们所说的带宽。您知道,多芯片模块本质上是通过所谓的先进封装将多个小芯片捆绑成一个模块。经过这种'捆绑'后,模块可以处理大量数据。但要使模块有用,模块还需要有足够的带宽来与外部进行双向数据传输。我们都知道光纤正在取代传统的金属线用于这种高带宽数据传输。然而,每条光纤线路的带宽仍然是固定的、有限的。因此,要提高整个多芯片模块的总带宽,简单的想法就是让多条光纤线路并行工作。这正是我们在讨论技术路线图时正在努力的方向。我们正试图将越来越多的光纤线路挤入非常有限的空间。我们目标是在未来几年实现显著增长,以应对先进多芯片模块预计需要传输的数据量增加。为实现这一目标,除了其他方面,我们需要推动光学设计和制造的边界,例如,实现传输后更好的波形完整性。另一个例子是更精确地将光纤与我们的设备连接的光子IC耦合。关于时间安排,我无法代表客户发言,我只能说我们被要求加速时间表,从已经相当具有挑战性的第一代LPO向更先进的CPO迁移,以及我们下一代产品的准备就绪,以实现快速增加的光纤线路数量。我们在上一季度的问答中也提到过,有些人想知道当需求真正到来时,我们是否有能力满足这些需求。我们内部已经多次计算过,我们对前景感到非常兴奋,因为如果我们看看合作伙伴或客户预计的产能扩张以及他们预计的高端2.5D模块或XPU增长,即使我们充分利用现有产能,也只能满足他们预计需求的一小部分。说实话,我们还没有他们未来几年的长期需求预测。但我们感觉准备充分,因为我刚才提到的所有这些代产品,无论是当前代还是未来代,都将在我们现有的WLO工厂中制造,使用现有产能,这些产能是为几年前我们为消费电子产品项目而建的。具体来说,我们相信相同的现有产能将为我们带来显著更多的收入和利润,因为LPO/CPO产品需要比我们早期用于消费电子产品的产品更复杂的光学设计和制造。我希望这回答了您关于WLO业务的所有问题。
Jordan Wu
Okay, good question. Let me probably elaborate a little bit. In our prepared remarks, we talked about working on next generation technologies and products. Right, and so you may wonder what exactly those are and its timeline, and therefore your question about contribution potentially for next year or the year after. So, the short answer is we are trying to squeeze more and more optical fiber lines into a very, very limited space, right? And that is a very tremendous engineering challenge. Now, as we all know, one of the main purposes of using LPO/ CPO technology is to substantially raise the data transmission rate, or what we call bandwidth, of the advanced multi-chip module, which, as you know, is essentially the bundling of multiple chiplets into a single module through so-called advanced packaging, right? The module, after such “bundling”, can therefore process a very large amount of data. But to make the module useful, the module also needs to have sufficient bandwidth to transmit that data with the outside in both ways. And we all know optical fiber is being used to replace the traditional metal wire for such a high-bandwidth data transmission. However, the bandwidth of each optical fiber line is still fixed, is still limited, right? And therefore, to up the overall bandwidth of the whole multi-chip module, the simple idea is to have multiple optical fiber lines working in parallel. And that is exactly what we’re working on when we talk about technology roadmap. We are trying to squeeze more and more optical fiber lines into a very limited space. We are targeting some phenomenal increases over the next few years to cope with the projected increase of data amount that need to be transmitted by the advanced multiple, multi-chip module. So, to achieve that, among other things, we need to push the boundary of optical design and manufacturing for better. For example, for better waveform integrity after transmission. And another example would be for more precise coupling of the optical fiber with the photonic IC that our device connected to, right? So, in terms of timeline, I can’t really speak on behalf of my customers, so all I can say is that we are being requested to accelerate the timeline from something already quite challenging, for the migration from first-generation LPO to more advanced CPO, as well as for the readiness of our next-generation products, enabling a fast-increasing number of optical fiber lines. So, and we also mention, it’s part of our Q&A last quarter as well, some people wonder about whether we have the capacity to meet such demands when it really happens. And we certainly, we have run the math internally several times, right? We are certainly very excited about the prospect because, you know, if we look at our partners or customers’ projected capacity expansion as well as their projected growth of such high-end 2.5D modules or XPUs, even if we to fully utilize our existing capacity, we can only meet a small fraction of their projected demand. Now, to be honest, we don’t have, we still don’t have their long-term forecast, long-term projection for their demand for covering, you know, next few years yet. But we feel we are very prepared because all these generations of products I just mentioned, whether this generation or future generation of our products will be manufactured in our existing WLO fab with existing capacity, which was built for the purpose of some earlier projects that we worked on several years back for consumer electronic products. Without specifics, we believe the same existing capacity will generate substantially more revenue and profit for us as the products for LPO/CPO demand much more sophisticated optical design and manufacturing, compared to those used for our earlier products, which, as I mentioned, is for consumer electronics. So I hope all address your questions regarding this WLO business.
Donnie Teng
谢谢,Jordan,这很有帮助。
Donnie Teng
Thank you, Jordan, it’s helpful.
Operator
女士们、先生们,我们仍在问答环节。[接线员指示] 谢谢。
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we are still in Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.
Jordan Wu
最后一点说明,我们的首席投资者关系/公共关系官Eric Li将继续负责投资者营销活动,并继续参加投资者会议。相关细节将在确定后公布。谢谢大家,祝您有美好的一天。
Jordan Wu
As a final note, Eric Li, our Chief IR/PR Officer, will maintain investor marketing activities and continue to attend investor conferences. We’ll announce the details as they come about. Thank you and have a nice day.