e425
Filed by Flextronics International Ltd. pursuant to Rule 425
Under the Securities Act of 1933 and deemed filed pursuant to
Rule 14a-12 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended
Subject Company: Solectron Corp.
Commission File No. of Subject Company: 001-11098
The following represents the transcript of Flextronicss First Quarter Earnings Conference Call
held on July 26, 2007 and select portions of the accompanying slide presentation.
Safe Harbor Statement
This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal
securities laws relating to both Flextronics and Solectron, including statements related to revenue and
earnings growth, and expectations as to the closing of the acquisition of Solectron by Flextronics.
These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to
differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. These risks include that revenue
and earnings growth may not occur as expected or at all; Flextronics's dependence on industries that continually produce
technologically advanced products with short life cycles; Flextronics's ability to respond to changes in economic
trends, to fluctuations in demand for Flextronics's customers' products and to the short-term nature of its
customers' commitments; competition in Flextronics's industry, particularly from ODM suppliers in Asia;
Flextronics's dependence on a small number of customers for the majority of its sales; the challenges of
effectively managing Flextronics's operations; the challenges of integrating acquired companies or assets;
Flextronics's reliance on strategic relationships with major customers; the impact on Flextronics's margins and
profitability resulting from substantial investments and start-up and integration costs in Flextronics's components,
design and ODM capabilities; that Flextronics may not be able to obtain new customer programs, or that if Flextronics
does obtain them, that they may not contribute to Flextronics's revenue or profitability as expected or at all;
Flextronics's ability to design and quickly introduce world-class components products that offer significant
price and/or performance advantages over competitive products; production difficulties, especially with new products;
Flextronics's ability to utilize available and recently expanded manufacturing capacity; the risk of future
restructuring charges that could be material to Flextronics's financial condition and results of operations;
not realizing expected returns from Flextronics's retained interests in divested businesses;
changes in government regulations and tax laws; Flextronics's exposure to potential litigation
relating to intellectual property rights, product warranty and product liability; potential impairment
of Flextronics's intangible assets; Flextronics's dependence on the continued trend of outsourcing by
OEMs, and the effects of customer bankruptcies. Other risks relate to Flextronics's pending acquisition of Solectron,
including the ability of Flextronics and
Solectron to satisfy the conditions to closing (including obtaining required regulatory approvals,
Solectron stockholder approval and Flextronics shareholder approval); if and when the acquisition
occurs, the revenues, cost savings, growth prospects and any other synergies expected from the
acquisition may not be fully realized due to difficulties integrating the businesses, operations
and product lines of Flextronics and Solectron or may take longer to realize than expected; any
delay in completing the acquisition (including any delay in obtaining the required clearances and
approvals or resulting from any litigation or similar proceedings) may significantly reduce the
benefits expected to be obtained from the acquisition; a failure to complete the acquisition could
materially and adversely affect Flextronicss results of operations and stock price; and
Flextronics may incur significant costs associated with the acquisition, including charges to
operations to reflect costs associated with integrating the businesses and operations of
Flextronics and Solectron. Additional information concerning these and other risks is described
under Risk Factors and Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of Operations in Flextronicss reports on Form 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K that Flextronics has filed with
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and under Cautionary Statement Regarding
Forward Looking Information, Risk Factors and The Merger included in the joint proxy
statement/prospectus which forms a part of Flextronicss registration statement on Form S-4, filed
by Flextronics with the SEC on July 11, 2007. The forward-looking statements in this press release
are based on current expectations and Flextronics assumes no obligation to update these
forward-looking statements.
Additional Information and Where to Find it:
In connection with the merger with Solectron, Flextronics has filed a Registration Statement
on Form S-4 (SEC File No. 333-14486) with the SEC that contains a preliminary Joint Proxy
Statement/Prospectus. Before making any voting or investment decision with respect to the proposed
merger, investors and security holders are urged to read carefully the Registration Statement, the
preliminary Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus, the definitive Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus, when
it is made available, and related materials, because they contain important information about
Flextronics, Solectron and the proposed merger. Documents filed with the SEC, including the
preliminary Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus, the definitive Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus, when
it is made available, and other relevant materials, may be obtained free of charge at the SECs web
site www.sec.gov. In addition, investors and security holders may obtain a free copy of
any documents that Flextronics and Solectron have filed with the SEC by directing a written request
to:
|
|
|
For information relating to Flextronics:
|
|
For information relating to Solectron: |
|
|
|
Flextronics International Ltd.
2090 Fortune Drive
San Jose, CA 95131
Attention: Investor Relations
|
|
Solectron Corporation
847 Gibraltar Drive
Milpitas, CA 95035
Attention: Investor Relations |
This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to
sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of
securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to
registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. No offering of
securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of
the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Participants in the Solicitation:
Flextronics, Solectron and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to
be participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed merger. Information
regarding the interests of these directors and executive officers in the proposed transaction is
included in the preliminary Joint Proxy Statement/Prospectus referred to above. This document is
available free of charge at the SECs website (www.sec.gov) or by contacting Flextronics
and Solectron at their respective addresses listed above.
Conference Call Transcript
FLEX Q1 2008 Flextronics Earnings Conference Call
Event Date/Time: Jul. 26. 2007 / 2:00PM PT
CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS
Mike McNamara
Flextronics CEO
Tom Smach
Flextronics CFO
CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS
Lou Miscioscia
Cowen Analyst
Jim Suva
Citigroup Analyst
Kevin Kessel
Bear Stearns Analyst
Steven Fox
Merrill Lynch Analyst
Tom Dinges
JPMorgan Analyst
Jeff Walkenhorst
Banc of america Securities Analyst
Brian White
Jefferies and Company Analyst
Bernie Mahon
Morgan Stanley Analyst
Alex Blanton
Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Long Jiang
UBS Analyst
Yuri Krapivin
Lehman Brothers Analyst
PRESENTATION
Operator
Good afternoon and welcome to the Flextronics first quarter results conference call. All lines
will be on listen-only until the question-and-answer session of todays conference. (OPERATOR
INSTRUCTIONS) . Todays call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at
this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Mike McNamara, Chief Executive Officer.
Thank you, sir. You may
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining the conference call to discuss the results of
Flextronics first quarter ended June 29, 2007.. To help communicate the data in this call, you can
also view our presentation on the internet. Go to the Investor section of our Web site and select
calls and presentations. You will need to click through the slides, so we will give you the slide
number we are referring to. On the call with me today is our Chief Financial Officer, Tom Smach. I
will turn the first part of the call over to Tom to go through the financial section of our
prepared remarks. . I will then provide commentary along with the guidance and open it up to
questions. Go ahead,
Tom Smach Flextronics CFO
Thanks, Mike. And good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Please note that this conference call
contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities Laws, including
statements related to revenue and earnings growth, the success of our vertical integration
strategy, our ability to add capacity, new customer programs, expected improvements in our SG&A
levels, inventory management, operating margin, future cash flow, and ROIC. The success of our
long-term initiatives and related investments and to expectations of the closing of the acquisition
of Solectron by Flextronics. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that
could cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these statements.
Information about these risks is noted in the earnings press release on Slide 16 of this
presentation and in the risk factors and in D&A sections of our latest annual report filed with the
SEC, as well as in our other SEC filings. These forward-looking statements are based on our current
expectations and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Investors are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
In addition, throughout this conference call, we will use non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer
to the schedules to the earnings press release, Slide 7 of the slide presentation, and the GAAP
versus non-GAAP reconciliation in the investor section of our Web site, which contain the
reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Slide 3. Quarterly revenue increased
$1.1 billion or 27% from the year-ago quarter to a first quarter record high $5.2 billion. While
quarterly adjusted operating profit increased 23% from the year-ago quarter to a first quarter
record high $153 million. Slide 4. Revenue from the computing segment comprised 10% of total June
quarter revenue and decreased 11% from the year-ago quarter. Products included in this category
include desktops, notebooks, servers, and electronic gaming consoles. Revenue from the consumer
digital segment comprised 20% of revenue and increased 21% over the year-ago quarter. Products
included in this category include cameras, copier, printer, and other consumer electronic devices.
Revenue from the infrastructure segment comprised 29% of total revenue and increased 42% over the
year-ago quarter. Products included in this category include Enterprise, Networking,
Telecommunication infrastructure for wireline, wireless, and optical equipment, as well as set-top
boxes. Revenue from the mobile segment comprised 30% of revenue and increased 33% over the year-ago
quarter. Products included in this category include cell phones and other handheld devices.
Lastly, revenue from the industrial, automotive, medical, and other segments comprised 11% of
revenue and increased 39% over the year-ago quarter. Products included in this category include
appliances, capital equipment, controls, meters, kiosks, car [infiltainment], navigation, marine
equipment, and blood glucose monitors. Our top them customers accounted for approximately 62% of
total revenue in the June quarter and Sony Ericsson is the only customer that exceeded 10% of the
June quarter revenue. Slide 5. Adjusted gross and operating profit increased 23% from the year-ago
quarter. Gross margin declined 10 basis points from the year-ago quarter, which was offset by a 10
basis point improvement in SG&A as a percentage of sales, which was 2.7% in the June quarter. As a
result, operating margin was 3.0% in the June 2007 quarter.
Slide 6. Adjusted net income amounted to a first quarter record high $134 million, which is a 29%
increase over the year-ago quarter. This resulted in a first quarter record high adjusted earnings
per share of $0.22, which is a 22% increase over the year-ago quarter. Slide 7. After-tax
amortization and stock-based compensation amounted to $17 million and $9 million, respectively, in
the June 2007 quarter compared to $12 million and $7 million, respectively, in the year-ago
quarter. After reflecting these items, GAAP net income increased 26% to $107 million compared to
$85 million in the year-ago quarter. This resulted in GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.17,
which is a 21% increase over the year-ago quarter. Slide 8. Return on invested capital improved 40
basis points to 10.4% in the June 2007 quarter from 10.0% in the year-ago quarter. Slide 9. We
ended the quarter with $770 million in cash, which is a sequential increase of $55 million from
last quarter. Total debt was reduced by excuse me. Total debt was reduced to $1.49 billion at
quarter end, which is the lowest level in almost four years. Net debt, which is total debt less
total cash was reduced by $68 million to $719 million at quarter end. Including the revolver, total
liquidity was in excess of $2.7 billion and the debt-to-total capital ratio was 19%, which is a
record low.
Slide 10. Cash conversion cycle was reduced 2 days, sequentially to 13 days, which continues to be
industry leading. Inventory decreased $47 million sequentially, even though sales increased by more
than 10% sequentially. Inventory turns increased to 7.7 times in the June quarter from 6.9 times in
the March quarter. Receivables increased $182 million sequentially. Day sales outstanding improved
3 days sequentially to 33 days, while accounts payable increased $243 million sequentially and days
payable outstanding decreased 7 days sequentially to 67 days. Slide 11. Cash flow from operations
generated $145 million during the quarter and CapEx amounted to $72 million. As a result, free cash
flow amounted to $73 million in the quarter. Depreciation and amortization amounted to $88 million
in the quarter. Total cash increased by $55 million during the quarter to $770 million at quarter
end. Id like to thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. As you turn to slide 12, I will now
turn the call over to Mike McNamara.
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Thanks, Tom. Before discussing guidance, I would like to provide some comments on our June
quarter performance. Im very proud of the dedication and hard work of our employees and management
across the globe in making this a very successful quarter for Flextronics. I remain confident that
our organization will continue to execute on a normal day-to-day operations and customer service
requirements as we work through the integration planning associated with our previously-announced
acquisition of Solectron. The overall demand environment in the June quarter was very stable, which
I would characterize as improvement from the March quarter. June quarter revenues of $5.2 billion
significantly exceeded our revenue guidance of 4.8 to $5.0 billion, while adjusted EPS of $0.22 was
at the high end of our range.
All in all, were extremely happy with the operating results in the quarter. Quarterly revenue
increased $1.1 billion or 27% from the year-ago quarter while quarterly adjusted net income
increased 29% over the same time frame. We continue to maintain a strong financial position, with
$770 million in cash, no short-term debt maturities, and a record low debt-to-capital leverage
ratio of 19%. We decreased our inventory balance by $47 million, sequentially and and increased our
inventory turns from 6.9 to 7.7. Our fixed asset throughput remained below 10% of sales. We remain
intensely focused on generating high return on capital while growing our business, as evidence by
our 40-basis point increase and return on invested capital from the year-ago quarter. We continue
to lead the industry with a cash conversion cycle of 13 days, which resulted in our operations
generating positive cash flow of $145 million for the quarter. Even though revenues grew 27%, we
still generated $73 million of free cash flow. Excluding the impacts from the Solectron
acquisition, we continue to expect positive free cash flow in the range of 3 to $400 million in
fiscal 08, which is after estimated CapEx of approximately $350 million.
Slide 13. On June 4, we announced that we entered into a definitive agreement to purchase
Solectron. We do not plan on providing any financial guidance until the transaction closes, but I
will provide an update on a few things. While we have received U.S. antitrust clearance, we have
not yet received all outstanding regulatory approval. Assuming no complications in the remaining
approvals required, we now feel as though we can close the transaction in October. My first plan I
visited almost every one of Solectrons factories around the world. Overall, I am pleased to say
that their factories and capabilities exceeded our original expectations. I was extremely impressed
with the operations and the people and look forward to working with them as we reshape our
industry.
Our integration planning has been further developed since the announcement and we feel as though it
should not take us 18 to 24 months to achieve our targeted $200 million of annualized after-tax
savings. We are comfortable reducing this estimated time frame to 12 to 18 months. Lastly and
perhaps more importantly, the customer feedback has been positive and even better than anticipated.
We are very excited about this acquisition and our confidence level about our ability to
successfully integrate it into Flextronics is extremely high and it continues to increase as we
dive into the details and further develop our integration plan.
Slide 14. With the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, we continue to expect revenue to increase 10
to 15% and adjusted EPS to increase approximately 15 to 20%. Fiscal 2008 guidance excludes any
impact from the Solectron acquisition.
Slide 15. We expect September quarter revenue to be approximately 5.3 to $5.6 billion and adjusted
EPS to be in the range of $0.22 to $0.24. We would like to reiterate that our September quarter
visibility is always limited as the quarter is traditionally back end loaded due to summer holidays
in July and August. Visibility historically doesnt improve until the month of September and we
dont expect anything different this summer. However, there is nothing specifically that we are
currently aware of that gives us any cause for concern, but being cautious over the summer months
is always a prudent thing to do. Quarterly GAAP earnings per diluted share are expected to be lower
than the guidance provided herein by approximately $0.04 per quarter for intangible amortization
expense and stock-based compensation expense.
Before we move into the Q&A segment of our call, I want to set forth our communications plan for
next quarter. Assuming the Solectron acquisition closes in October, we would issue a press release
with no conference call on the day it closes. We are planning on releasing our September quarter
results on October 23. We are currently non-planning on issuing guidance for the combined company
at that time. Rather, we would wait until our analysts and investor meeting on November 6, in New
York City, where we will have our senior management team present or strategy and vision, including
the combined companys financial estimates for the remainder of fiscal 2008, along with longer-term
financial targets. All of the details of the acquisition will be provided during this meeting.
Please mark your calendars and save the date for this extremely important meeting, which is again
scheduled for November 6 in New York City.
Slide 16. There are real risk factors in operating in this business, which includes a macro
economic or technology slowdown, among other things. Please pay particular attention to this slide
in light of the current market conditions. I will now turn the conference call over to the operator
for questions. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up call.
QUESTION AND ANSWER
Operator
Thank you. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) Our first question comes from Lou Miscioscia with Cowen.
Your line is open, sir.
Lou Miscioscia Cowen Analyst
Thank you. Obviously looking forward to that November 6 date. As we start to have our model,
though, for 09, should we think that Solectron and the merger were in is going to be the main
task that you guys are going to be focusing on, or do you also think that youre going to continue
your 10 to 50% desire for topline growth?
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Well, I think by the time we get into FY09, we could potentially have six months behind us in
terms of doing the integration and the acquisition of Solectron, so I think well already have a
pretty good head start on those activities. I would like to see FY09 as being kind of beginning to
tail down some of the integration activities with so I would actually hope that were pretty
focused on growth at that time. One of the things I might focus everybody on, as relates to our
business, there are a lot of as we built this company, we built it for scale and we built seven
different market segments and we have three or four different business units. Not all of those
segments and units are really affected by this acquisition.
A good example is our mobile phone division where we have close to $6 billion in business.
Solectron doesnt have mobile, sot these guys are running their business, theyre aggressively
going after new business, they are not defocused, they are not involved in the acquisition, dont
participate in it. The same is true for much of the consumer business, which is a big segment for
us. Its well over $4 billion. There are a lot of segments that are really not even impacted by
this. So I like to think and we have built our company this way we have for a reason, and that
is to provide this scalability and to be able to do this kind of integrations without missing a
beat. So I would expect to us carry along, running our business as required. I do not expect that
much of a slowdown and there is at least I would say at least, probably close to two-thirds of
our business, which is monaural impacted by the activities with Solectron. I should think well
just carry right on. It will be our expectation to continue the growth rate.
Lou Miscioscia Cowen Analyst
Okay, great. A quick follow-up for Tom. Good job of getting the inventory going in the right
direction. Last quarter, you didnt really want to give us a comment, but now since it seems like
its going in the right direction, any thoughts for the next quarter or your long-term target for
inventory turns?
Tom Smach Flextronics CFO
Unfortunately, Lou, I guess I would answer it the same way I did last quarter. We certainly
have internal targets that were working to improve inventory turns and reduce our overall
inventory levels. I just think its an awfully difficult thing to manage quarter-in and quarter-out
because things can change right at the last quarter. You might expect an inventory pull from a
customer that doesnt happen right at quarter end. Maybe it happens a couple days into the new
quarter. So I dont really want to put forth a quantified estimate other than to tell you for sure
we are internally continuing to work toward an improvement in inventory turns and a reduction in
inventory levels.
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
I might add that I think we kind of hit bottom in that March quarter. We did a lot of we
increased our business pretty substantially with some of the infrastructure businesses that we
brought on during FY07 and weve now absorbed those increases in inventory for those infrastructure
businesses and were now starting to wheel them off and make some progress. Its our expectation
that we kind of hit bottom last year, or last fiscal year in March, and well continue to recover
from that. Thats preselect run, if you will.
Operator
Our next question comes from Jim Suva with Citigroup. Your line is open.
Jim Suva Citigroup Analyst
Great. Congratulations, guys. It looks like everything is on track or better than expected. A
quick question. When we look at your profitability, how should we look at that going forward. I
know you have your EPS goals, but as far as the operating profit line at 3%, I guess some people
have already e-mailed me, how come it wasnt higher or more throughput? Should we continue to
expect it to be more of a revenue and dollar flow through profitability as opposed to moving
operating margins say from 3% to 3.3%?
Tom Smach Flextronics CFO
Well, weve been very flat at 3% for many quarters now, as you know, and we kind of view that
and set that as a target for ourselves during this growth rate. The growth rate continues very
high. Every time the growth rate goes way up like this, we carry start-up costs and new people we
have to bring out and that sort of thing. Were pretty pleased with being able to maintain that.
Going forward, we are still committed to increasing our margin rate. We still expect some
improvement in margins in the back half of the year, which weve communicated previously and I
think you will continue to see that leverage up as we earn a little bit better on the SG&A dollars
going forward and I think were going to get some more traction out of our component businesses. So
were still positive about in the back half of the year improving margins a little bit, but in the
meantime, if we can keep growing, even flat at 3%, if we can keep growing that thing at 20% plus
per year, we view that as a good win. But what I can tell you, were really, really committed and
working hard at being able to drive those margins up at the back half of the year.
Jim Suva Citigroup Analyst
Okay, great. A quick follow
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Jim, let me reiterate, as Mike said, we still think we can improve operating margins, but the
goal is to grow earnings per share more than 20% a year while increasing our return on invested
capital. Thats the goal. That being said, we think given the growth rate we can still improve
operating margin in the back half of the year.
Jim Suva Citigroup Analyst
Okay, great. A quick follow-up to Tom. Tom, I noticed that theres a little bit about stock
vesting or stock issuance to some people. How should we think about stock comp as a dollar amount
for EPS going forward. Because a lot of your peers are now including stock comp in their EPS. What
should we bake into for EPS this quarter?
Tom Smach Flextronics CFO
As we said in the guidance section, stock compensation and intangible amortization will impact
EPS by about $0.04 a quarter. Now, that includes intangible amortization, Jim. So if you can look
at those two items together, I would model $0.04 of an impact per quarter.
Jim Suva Citigroup Analyst
Okay, great. And congratulations, guys.
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Thanks.
Operator
Well take our next question comes from Kevin Kessel with Bear Stearns. Your line is open.
Kevin Kessel Bear Stearns Analyst
Thanks. My question actually is on the revenue attrition as it relates to the Solectron
acquisition, I think you guys initially thought maybe $1.5 billion. Does that still hold true?
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Yes. I dont know for the record, we dont think were going to lose $1.5. When we looked
at the accretion and everything else, we modeled that in because we thought it was very prudent and
conservative. Now that weve got into the transaction and we actually wouldnt have done this
deal if we thought it was going to be negative to customers. As we get into the transaction, we
have more and more input from customers in terms of their plans. Theyve had opportunities to
absorb the impact of the combined company, the benefits it may have and were just exceedingly
positive that its going to be a good thing. We actually cant see $1.5 billion going out at all. I
think thats were going to beat that number very substantially and but as you know, its
really hard to put your finger on it, but were very, very confident after being in this now for 10
weeks that well beat that number pretty nicely.
Kevin Kessel Bear Stearns Analyst
Mike, so you said youve obviously been to all these factories and gone around and seen them
all and the capabilities. At this point, is there any sort of a sense for how many factories,
ballpark might have to come offline or be consolidated where they might be in close proximity to
one another? Anything like that in terms of
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Nothing that we would share. Were still working on it and it would be premature to even
suggest anything at this point. But because were making a lot of progress, we should be able to
give you a very, very good indication of all of the impacts by the time we get to our November 6,
analyst meeting.
Kevin Kessel Bear Stearns Analyst
Okay. Then just a last question here is on Cisco, Cisco was the one you announced last year at
your analyst day and it had begun to ramp up. Has there been any slowing at all in that
relationship as a result of the pending deal?
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
In the Flextronics portion of the Cisco relationship?
Kevin Kessel Bear Stearns Analyst
Yes, right. Just your very specific portion of that relationship.
.
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Again, I actually dont think there was any impact. There was a set of products that we were
working on at Cisco before this was announced and there was a little bit of a road map for us to go
after. That road map continues to be in place. We continue to grow the revenues with Cisco and I
think everythings on track per plan. Again, I think Cisco would view this as kind of a positive
transaction and comfortable with maintaining the path that we were on.
Kevin Kessel Bear Stearns Analyst
Great. Thank you very much.
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Yes.
Operator
Your next question comes from Steven Fox with Merrill Lynch. Your line is open.
Steven Fox Merrill Lynch Analyst
Hi, good afternoon. When you look at the $1.1 billion increase in sales year-over-year, can
you go back and review the new program wins. How much was related to that and anything you can call
out along those lines would be great.
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Yes. Its hard to its really hard to get into very, very specific program wins that drive
this, just because we are such a broadly diversified company and theres so many different
technologies. Theres new technologies we added since last year which include the machining and LCD
displays and ODM products for servers and theres its just hard to pinpoint it in particular.
The key thing is that we tried to work really hard at diversifying our business and building a very
scalable operation that can grow across multiple market segments. If you look at the if you
remember the earlier comments, our consumer digital business grew like 21%, our infrastructure
business grew 29, our mobile business grew 33, our industrial medical automotive grew 39. Every one
of these are in the solid double-digits with the exception of the computing business. And on
year-on-year, we actually do expect all of these segments to deliver a double-digit growth stream.
So I think its really broadly diversified. Its hard to identify it with just one customer, but as
you know in the March quarter, we obviously made a lot of progress with Motorola because they
became a 10% customer. We did a pretty sizable transaction with Kodak. As you know, we started
ramping the Cisco business last year and the Sun business. Our biggest customer is Sony Ericsson.
Theyve continued to perform very, very well in the marketplace. We did a pretty big deal with the
old, with Verigy which does test systems for the semiconductor business. So those are kind of the
key ones, but its pretty broadly diversified set of business, set of customers, and even across
multiple production technologies.
Steven Fox Merrill Lynch Analyst
Okay. Then just one quick question on the Solectron deal. You sort of touched on a number of
ways customer reaction being positive. I dont know if theres anything else you can share in terms
of detail in terms of what youve told them or what theyve found most exciting to transferring
business to Flextronics, going forward?
Mike McNamara Flextronics CEO
Well, I think we kind of told them the same thing that we told you guys, although I think they
have a pretty good idea of whats at Solectron, whats at Flextronics, most of them. I think what
they look at is the broadest range of capability and the broadest geographic footprint of anything
in the industry. As these big, multinational companies look for a solution to deliver to the world,
whether its India or Brazil or Europe or
Americas or anywhere, its hard to find anybody who has the scale of services that we bring. And I
think they look at that. I think they always view Flextronics being a little bit on the lower end
with a lot of verticals and a lot of worldwide presence, but with Solectron, they are undoubtedly
and havent been to a lot of their factories, they are undoubtedly the highest end EMS manufacturer
in the world, today. I think you put all those together and leverage up the verticals that we have
and its a very powerful story. At the same time, we built our company around market segments where
we just love services the guy thats $10 million and needs a local solution, whether its not
United States or Europe or elsewhere. So we built so I think thats what they see and the same
thing weve communicated to you guys.
Steven Fox - Merrill Lynch Analyst
Great. Thank you very much.
Operator
Our next question comes from Tom Dinges with JPMorgan.
Tom Dinges - JPMorgan Analyst
Hi. Good afternoon, guys. Maybe along those same lines in terms of what has changed from when
you guys announced the deal that made you guys confident enough that you could pull forward the
cost savings and just remind us again. I think you guys had said originally you guys expect to get
70% of the savings would probably come out of the SG&A and manufacturing and so forth and roughly
about 30% of it would come from supplier savings. Has that ratio changed? Is that one of the
reasons there? A little bit of help there would be great. And I have a quick follow-up for Tom.
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
I think the confidence comes as we got into the details of the capabilities, the confidence,
and the status of Solectron maybe status isnt the right word, but the condition of the
factories, the quality team thats in place, how well implemented things like lean manufacturing
and such were, those kind of activities were above expectations. The results of that, it gives us
great confidence that the integration is going to go better and a validation that the services that
we offer are truly in fact better and really do create value for the customer, which just means we
have very, very tremendous amount of confidence that the customer is going to stay with us. We
think weve got a believable offering, and I think most customers have said that. And we just got
into all the details. We feel that the places that weve identified where benefits occur are really
out there. And we can know how to get to them. So weve validated the fact that we can get to these
savings and weve become more and more comfortable with the $200 million.
Tom Dinges - JPMorgan Analyst
Okay. Tom, just a quick one, tax rate, if I calculate it, it came in lighter than I think you
were telling us to have for this quarter. Whats the expectation as you look out for the rest of
the year?
Tom Smach - Flextronics CFO
Right, Tom. So it is a little lower. The guidance is a 7% tax rate for the year and as we move
through each and every quarter, some quarters might be a little less than 7%, some might be a
little more, but I am comfortable that for the year were still talking somewhere around a 7% tax
rate.
Tom Dinges - JPMorgan Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Tom Smach - Flextronics CFO
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Jeff Walkenhorst with Banc of America Securities.
Jeff Walkenhorst - Banc of america Securities Analyst
Thanks for taking my question. Looking at the segment revenue where the numbers came in, the
infrastructure segment was much higher than we had anticipated. Was there something, was it new
programs or was there a step up obviously, seasonally a little bit stronger. Is there something
how would that look going forward? Or do we think it drops back down, or are there new programs
that should support that?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
So for the year, we expect that division to grow above 20% and its kind of a broad range of
programs, but in particular, we view the structure segment I dont know if when youre doing
your comparisons when we view the infrastructure, we view it all the way from the set-top box in
the home all the way out to the wide area network. So we view that whole segment as or that
whole part of the product line as part of infrastructure. I dont know how youre used to looking
at it, but we have a tremendous amount of growth in our set-top box in particular. And the
infrastructure itself, what I would call the more core infrastructure kind of business, more
traditional, is also growing. But a large part of that growth is coming out of set-top boxes, which
is a product category we focused on very heavily last year and in fact brought on several new
customers that grew very, very rapidly.
Jeff Walkenhorst - Banc of america Securities Analyst
Right. Okay, that makes sense. Bring on the FFA. Thats good. Even the wireless a little bit
stronger there. Second question is, I know youve hired a lot of folks in Taiwan from the ODM
business. How is that unit shaping up for you in terms of utilization and pipeline for new product?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Yes, we continue to invest in that capability. This is another piece which were very, very
proud of to be able to hold the earnings and the growth in the earnings and at the same time
continue to make very, very aggressive investments in our view. Taiwan is one of those places that
weve been investing a lot and its going extremely well. So weve worked hard to get the
capabilities in the last year centered around a small acquisition we did. Weve done a lot of
organic growth around that acquisition in terms of capabilities and weve come out with some new
products. Not really new products, but platforms, if you will, that demonstrate confidence and be
able to work with the customers on and were getting very, very strong interest from our customers.
Id call that like extremely pleased with how thats shaping up.
Jeff Walkenhorst - Banc of america Securities Analyst
And you feel relatively good about being in your competitive positions relative to[ Shanghai]
and the other out in that market?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Were newer in it and were smaller in it, but what weve done with that is tried to find a
place in the marketplace where we can compete and at the same time make some money. We didnt just
go out and say, we need computing, we said, where can we make money, how do we do it in the most
cost effective way and were really pleased with those results. I would say were ready to take on
Taiwan, but were very pleased that were going to go find niches to operate in that are going to
be profitable that we then can exploit and grow. The computing market is a place where weve not
participated very much on it and its an enormous market in the world and its a place where were
trying to move a little bit more aggressively into.
Jeff Walkenhorst - Banc of america Securities Analyst
Very good. Good luck, guys.
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Thanks.
Operator
Your next question comes from Brian White with Jefferies and Company.
Brian White - Jefferies and Company Analyst
Yes. Good afternoon. When we look at the mobile phone market, clearly, a bit of a
disappointment. Is that really just driven by one customer, or was the market soft in general?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
I think different customers or different OEMs have different (Inaudible) market share. I think
you guys know a lot of what they are. Our mobile business grew 33% year-over-year. So were pretty
happy with that and were still coming off a real strong year last year where we grew about 60%. So
our FY07 or FY06 was off about 60%. This quarter, year-on-year, like I mentioned, 33. Were pretty
happy about the mobile phone market. We have some customers that have had some share losses and
were certainly suffering with that, but even despite that, weve got a nicely diversified
portfolio and despite some of the hiccups with some of our customers, were still growing 33%. So
were not ( Inaudible )
Brian White - Jefferies and Company Analyst
Okay. Just looking at sequentially. Do you think in the September quarter what type of
growth do you expect for the mobile phone market in the September quarter?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
September quarter?
Brian White - Jefferies and Company Analyst
Sequentially.
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Well look that up. One other thing I might add about the mobile business is that weve
continued to invest in our ODM business and that market continues to grow for us. We continue to
have more and more program wins and were very, very pleased how thats developing as well. Some
hiccups with some of the customers it will slow us down a little bit, but its more like slower
growth as opposed to really taking us down. September quarter will be like mid-single digits for
September growth rate.
Brian White - Jefferies and Company Analyst
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Bernie Mahon with Morgan Stanley.
Bernie Mahon - Morgan Stanley Analyst
Hey, good evening. Tom, a question for you on the gross margins. I was a little surprised, I
guess, that they fell 20 basis points sequentially despite the revenue growing 10%. Was there
something in the mix shift to the infrastructure. Is that a lower gross margin business? I thought
you made a lot of investments in the second half of last year and it was just a full cost
absorption that you were going to be able to improve the gross margins over this year. Can you talk
about what happened there?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Sure. So the June quarter is always a difficult sequential comp on gross margins because
typically the March quarter is the highest gross margin quarter because of the product mix shift.
In the March quarter, seasonally, consumer and mobile phones are down. As you saw this quarter, we
had significant growth in both of the consumer and mobile business and therefore the product mix
shift is going back to more higher volume, lower margin products. So I would say seasonally,
Bernie, theres nothing unusual about how our gross margin increased in March and then pulled back
in the June quarter. That was very much in-line with expectations.
Bernie Mahon - Morgan Stanley Analyst
Okay. So should we expect it to increase in the September quarter then, or would it stay more
flattish?
Tom Smach - Flextronics CFO
As Mike said, we think in the first half of this fiscal year, margins are going to be a little
bit flat. Therell be a little bit improvement in the September quarter and most of the improvement
would be coming in the December and March quarters with regard to margins. I would expect flattish
to a little bit of improvement in September.
Bernie Mahon - Morgan Stanley Analyst
Okay, thats great. Thanks.
Tom Smach - Flextronics CFO
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from Alex Blanton with Ingalls and Snyder. Your line is open.
Alex Blanton - Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Hi, good afternoon. Youve done a good job about telling us about some of the surprises that
you found at Solectron as you got into the integration and visited their plants and met the people
and the customers. But my question relates to the to what Solectron ought to be able to earn on
its own. Youve told us $200 million in synergies that you expect coming from the combination of
the two companies and the combined resources of the two companies. But given what youve seen at
Solectron now, were Solectron to stay as an independent company, what should the margins be?
Theyve been in the range 5.1 to 5.5% recently, having come down from 6% Im talking gross
margin now at the beginning
of calendar 2003 when Mike Cannon came in. So gross margins went down during his reign, but what
should they be? Given the fact that they have this high end product line that they are very good at
and they should be able to price because of the proprietary skills they have, as you said, and
their product mix is actually richer than Jabils and Jabil up until the last year has been able to
achieve 8% gross margins. So given what youve seen, what do you think they should do on their own?
Thats not a theoretical question because after you two companies merge, they should be able to
achieve that, I would think. In addition to or before synergies, before the kinds of savings that
can be accomplished by combining the two companies. Now, did you follow that? Its a long question,
but I think its the most important question here.
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Yes. One thing can I say is we never, ever modeled what Solectron can achieve on its own
because it just didnt matter to us. What really mattered to us is what we could achieve together.
Alex Blanton - Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Thats part of it, isnt it, though, Mike. What they could achieve on their own and what you
can achieve on top by combining the two companies. Theres two parts to there, isnt there?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
We went to the final step when we model it. We just went in and said if we were running this
hers the overhead structure that we would need, heres the factories, hereshow we would run it,
heres how we do the integration, heres how we would get procurement levels and stuff like that.
To get back to your question, though, while we havent modeled it and why they didnt achieve those
higher margins I guess we can of course ourselves those question, but I fundamentally believe that
the margin structure of a company that does higher end products like solectron should be higher
than a company like Flextronics, which has substantially more consumer production.
Alex Blanton - Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Yes.
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
So I think thats what your premise is, and I agree with that. We didnt model it
individually. Were actually if we also think thats a premise that should be achieved, you can
imagine that were going after that. We would certainly hope to find that to be true. If it is, the
way were running it, I would expect our profits to go up over time. I agree with you, without
having modeled it, I fundamentally agree with your premise.
Alex Blanton - Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Yes. I have modeled it and it looks pretty good. The second question is the quarterly revenue
by segment compared with last year and with March. I dont know that you really explained some of
these things. The computing business was down, although it was up from March, it was down
year-over-year. That was one big change and then the infrastructure was up 35% from the June
quarter I mean, from the March quarter, even though the infrastructure ought to be relatively
strong in that quarter. And it was up 42% year-over-year. So what occurred there? What are the new
programs youre ramping in that sector that are bringing that about?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
The biggest thing is the set-top boxes. When we look at infrastructure, we think about the end
to end. From the wide area network all the way from delivery to the home. Thats how we classify
infrastructure and we run that as a business unit. Weve had a tremendous amount of growth in that
whole last mile; in the set-top box area, in the channel going into the home and weve had and
then weve had a more traditional, more modest growth, I would say, in kind of the pure
infrastructure business. But we still had had growth. But the biggest thing that kicked the 42%
more than anything else is the set-top boxes by business more than anything else. But pretty much
everything was hitting on all cylinders. Were getting some good market share gains in that
segment, were pretty happy about it
Alex Blanton - Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Who is that comes from, the market share? I mean, Solectron is large in that sector and so is
Sanmina. Would you care to say where youre getting the share?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Well, (Inaudible)we probably got some from Nortel. Certainly, Ericsson is a very, very big
customer of ours. Theyre doing extremely well in the marketplace and were gaining some share
there. Theyve acquired some businesses that weve participated in as well. And those are probably
the biggest in terms of the raw infrastructure, not accounting for the set-top box.
Alex Blanton - Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Set-top box, where are you getting that share?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Well, set-top box, as you know, we do Scientific Atlanta, we do Motorola, and we have actually
several others. We participate in the top five or six set-top box guys we do work for, probably
four of them, for a variety of reasons and its a business that went from virtually zero at the
beginning of last year to whats roughly a $1 billion business today. Weve had a enormous amount
of success in penetrating that marketplace. Thats on the heels of, we did a little acquisition to
get a hold of some technology and we just focus on going after that business and did a real good
job of going after it, and then leveraging up the verticals, as you can imagine.
Alex Blanton - Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Finally, can you touch on the computing being down 11%?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Yes, computing is the only thing that went down. Everything is pretty smoke and growth rates,
wed say. One of the things that we are we had a little slowdown on is some of the Xbox that
occurred during the quarter and some of you guys, Im sure al of you have heard the announcements
of the challenges that Microsoft had with their product. So we had a little bit of a slowdown in
terms of the revenue in that period, which took us down kind of substantially. But again,
alternatively going forward, its starting to ramp up very, very nicely again. Theyve fixed all
their problems. Its a great solution and in addition to the revenue increase that well see on the
seasonality, well also see some benefit of the repair business. So all in all, thats going to
turn pretty substantially for us. I think year- on- year, youre still going to see computing go up
in the very, very healthy double-digits. Like you see on slide I dont know what slide that is.
Slide 4. We would expect computing the end of the year in the same kind of format.
Alex Blanton - Ingalls & Snyder Analyst
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Well take two more questions.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Long Jiang with UBS.
Long Jiang - UBS Analyst
Yes, hi, good afternoon. My question, again, is related to profit margin. I think we havent
talk about a component business profit margins for a while. Could you update us where you stand in
terms of components profit margin relative to your expectation? And then a related question related
for this quarter, I think somebody else asked this question before, but I just wanted to further
clarify that. Whats impacting the gross margin performance this quarter given a pretty strong
revenue sequential growth and apparently a better sales mix this quarter? Thanks.
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
So in the components business, Im not sure which youre looking at, but maybe Ill address
two particular businesses in that. One is the PCB business Mulltech, Mulltech continues to have
pretty good growth rates, also into the double-digits, but the margins have tightened a little bit
in the industry. We continue to have very, very good margins, but theyve come down a little bit
and that is a fact that were working through and weve had a lot of pricing in the underlying
materials go up, but still very, very healthy margins in the double-digits. And the other piece of
the components business are what we traditionally talk about components business and relative to
expectations, FY06 we did zero profit, which probably know our target in FY07 was to do roughly the
same in EMS margin. We ended up doing about 2% in FY07, instead of the 3% we anticipated, got off a
little slower and we anticipated in FY 08 we got up to the 5 or 6% level. We are moving right
along, we had a real good quarter this last quarter close to those numbers and so we should
actually see this year kind of fill out at around 5 or 6% rate or so.
Long Jiang - UBS Analyst
Related to gross margin? Sequential trend.
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Forgot about that. So on gross margins, we still carry a very, very high level of what I would
call volume consumer business. So we still have a tremendous amount of our consumer digital
business, which we view as volume consumer business with a little bit higher inventory turns, runs
about $4 billion $4 billion run rate. Our cell phone business runs very, very high. Our cell
phone business is running about a $6 billion run rate. So it still dwarves the Company in term of
where our margins. Are its one of the reasons were looking forward to a company like Solectron,
gives us a little bit more balance, because that product mix is going to be a little bit more
beneficial to us, we think, as it relates to margin. But were still absorbing some learning curve.
Its hard to grow 27% across a broad portfolio of products and the complexity of the products that
we do in the amount of different locations we do, its hard to grow 27% and not have an impact in
some of the learning curve that were going to experience. And we continue to invest very, very
heavily in our future and invest in new technologies and design resources and new product
categories and we have not abated in any way those investments. Between all those, it keeps margins
a little bit down. Well look for some margin improvement later in the year, as we discussed
earlier.
Long Jiang - UBS Analyst
Do you continue to stick to the 10% operating margin improvements year-over-year, for the
whole year 08?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
We wont do the whole year-over-year. When the March quarter became real soft on us and June
got a little soft. We said were going to have sax-month delay in achieving those numbers. I would
call it, we still are working hard to get up to those numbers, but its very much asked by product
mix, its very much affected by the start-up costs and such, but we do anticipate our margins going
up at the back half of the year. I think there was like a six-month flip to that to that
expectation just as a result of the more the economic slowdown that we saw starting to happen in
February and March than anything else.
Long Jiang - UBS Analyst
Thanks, much.
Tom Smach - Flextronics CFO
I just want to kind of reiterate something to keep in mind and keep in perspective. We grew
revenues 27%, okay? We cannot continue to grow revenues at 27% a year. Once that growth rate, our
longer-term revenue growth target is 10 to 15% growth with earnings growing 15 to 20%. So while we
continue to grow revenues in excess of 20%, its going to be very difficult to improve margins. We
will continue to grow earnings in excess of 20% at that level, but the margin improvement and
leverage that everyone is looking for I dont want a positive turned into a negative. The
positive is were growing revenues well in excess of 20% a year and were growing earnings well in
excess of 20% a year, but when that revenue growth rate flattens out just a little bit, that is
when that margin leverage will present itself. The good news is earnings and profits and revenues
are growing in excess of 20% a year and we think we can continue to grow earnings in excess of 20%
a year on a lower revenue growth rate. But with that we would like to take one more question and
then well end the call.
Operator
Thank you. Our last question comes from Yuri Krapivin with Lehman Brothers. Your line is open.
Yuri Krapivin - Lehman Brothers Analyst
Yes, good afternoon. Mike, maybe you can just talk a little bit about the overall business
environment. Commentary from various companies so far this earnings season is that some believe
that trends remain subdued. Other companies actually seeing some pickup in end market demand and
believe that the business momentum is improving. So how do you see maybe the second half of
calendar 07 versus the first half of calendar 07 for you, just from the underlying market demand
perspective?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Well, the first half we thought was pretty soft. We ended up getting a little bit soft in
February and March and we saw maybe a little bit more stable trends April, May, June. So we feel
that weve been very, very consistent over the last, say three months. That consistency is not
built around really robust growth, its just like okay growth. In the second half, its always hard
for us to sort through that because we get softer information in the July/ August time frame.
Really when everybody get back in September is when really get a look at what the orders look like
going into the December quarter. Its really hard for to us predict going into the future. It feels
like its a pretty stable, but kind of slow, if you will, type of economic environment and we dont
see any really robust pickup of any kind, but its been very, very stable for at least three months
in my view, our view, but we have to wait until September before we get any kind of indication of
really what the back half of the year looks like.
Yuri Krapivin - Lehman Brothers Analyst
Okay, thank you. I noticed that you had currency exchange gain on the sale of some assets,
basically offset by restructuring. Excluding the integration of Solectron, which might necessitates
significant restructuring charges, is it your philosophy going forward to basically use any
nonoperating gains for to offset restructuring charges?
Tom Smach - Flextronics CFO
Yes, yes. Weve actually articulated that strategy on more than one occasion, Yuri, so thats
absolutely right. From time to time, well have to tweak our footprint. As Mike has said, we run a
very large, complex multinational company here and from time to time we will have nonoperating
gains and well look to try to use those to pay for any nonoperating restructuring charges we may
have. As you pointed out correctly, they were very minor in the quarter, about $10 million each. So
very low level for our company. But that should be your expectation. From time to time, youll see
some nonoperating gains and expenses and theyll be enough to offset one another. Okay?
Mike McNamara - Flextronics CEO
Okay. So with that well end the call and thanks to everybody for attending.
Operator
This concludes todays conference. You may disconnect at this time.
Update on Solectron Acquisition
Expected close date accelerated to October
Targeted savings expected to be realized 12-18 months post-close
Customer feedback positive and enthusiastic
FLEXTRONICS Design. Build. Ship. 13 |