News Article
SemiLEDs not so bright with quarterly revenues slashed by 54%
The decline is partly due to pricing pressures caused by the weak demand of outdoorstreet lighting in China, together with the overcapacity of backlighting that has spilled over into the general lighting market.
SemiLEDs Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of LED chips and LED components, has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011, ended August 31, 2011.
Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 was $5.3 million, a 54% decrease from $11.5 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010.
GAAP net loss attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 was $13.6 million, or a loss of $0.50 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders of $5.3 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010.
“As expected, the market remained challenging in Asia for LED chips and components. The China market is not improving due to inflationary and monetary issues together with depressed economic conditions around the world. We continue to see pricing pressure due to the weak demand in the China outdoor street lighting market, together with the overcapacity of backlight that has spilled over to the general lighting market. The ASP erosion is not as extreme as in prior quarters and prices have stabilised somewhat,” said Trung Doan, Chairman and CEO of SemiLEDs.
“With so much uncertainty, we remain cautious in our near term outlook but continue to believe in the industry’s long term market opportunities. When the Chinese government releases funds for the five year plan, we expect to benefit given that we are one of the few companies that meets the program’s requirements and that we have local presence with our JV, China SemiLEDs,” continued Doan.
Revenue for the fiscal year end 2011 was $33.9 million, a 5.2% decrease compared to $35.8 million for the fiscal year end 2010. GAAP net loss attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders for the fiscal year 2011 was $16.1 million, or a loss of $0.88 per diluted share, compared to GAAP net income attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders of $10.8 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, for the fiscal year 2010.
GAAP gross margin for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 was negative 93%, compared with 53% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. Operating margin for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 was negative 228%, compared with 42% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. Margins were negatively impacted by a charge of $4.3 million for the write-downs of inventory and a charge of $1.1 million for bad debt reserve.
The Company’s cash and cash equivalents was $83.6 million at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to the prior quarter ending balance of $94.4 million. Cash used in operations was $2.0 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011.
Financial Outlook
For its first quarter of fiscal 2012 ending November 30, 2011, SemiLEDs expects revenue in a range of $6.0 million to $7.0 million with GAAP net loss attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders of $8.5 million to $8.0 million, or a loss of $0.31 to $0.29 per diluted share, based on an estimated 27.3 million diluted weighted average shares. GAAP gross margin is expected to be negative.
Conference Call Information
SemiLEDs will discuss these financial results in a conference call today at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time (9:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 8, 2011, China Time). A live webcast of the conference call may be accessed on the Investors section of the company website at http://investors.semileds.com/events.cfm.
For those who are unable to participate in the live conference call, an audio replay will be available until Thursday, November 10, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. To access the audio replay, dial 888-203-1112 or 719-457-0820 and enter access code 7344597. A replay of the webcast will be available on the Investors section on the Company’s web site approximately two hours after the conclusion of the call and remain available for approximately 90 calendar days.
SemiLEDs develops and manufactures LED chips and LED components primarily for general lighting applications, including street lights and commercial, industrial and residential lighting. SemiLEDs sells blue, green and ultraviolet (UV) LED chips under the MvpLED brand.
