Semtech Corporation (NASDAQ:SMTC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Emeka Chukwu: And Craig, I also think our broad-based industrial and automotive protection, which is a record €“ which is expected to have a record this year, should also grow next year. That is the anticipation.

Craig Ellis : Great. And then my last question is for you, Emeka. And it’s just a follow-up to comments made three months ago around the capital costs to really the debt interest cost for the square deal. I think three months ago you were thinking 5% to 5.5% would be a reasonable blended interest cost, is that still the expectation or has it changed?

Emeka Chukwu: I think it’s going to move to slightly because of all the increase in the rates at this point depending on where the rates are. At the time we close the transaction, probably expect it to be between 5.5% and 6%.

Craig Ellis: Okay. So, pretty close, but a little bit hard. Got it. Thanks guys.

Mohan Maheswaran: Thank you.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Christopher Rolland with Susquehanna. Please proceed with your question.

Christopher Rolland: Hey, guys. Thanks for the question. Either of you guys, you know perhaps you can illustrate the weakness we’re seeing in China, perhaps you can illustrate it for us. I think for the full-year, you’re expecting 34% of end consumption to be in China. I guess the first question is, what’s a more normalized number? And then where do you think this trough in Q4? Are we talking like 20%, is it less from that, how sort of deep is this? I guess that’s my first question.

Mohan Maheswaran: So, with regards to the consumption by region, it is an estimate, right. We currently have a size that 35% and it is still at that range. Maybe we’ll just have to see how the POS and everything continues by the end of the year. But Chris, my gut feel at this time is that it is probably going to be at that level, maybe slightly lower, but I can’t really give you a number at this point.

Christopher Rolland: Okay. Maybe you can talk about, I think you mentioned inventories in China, I don’t know if that was for a specific product or not, but can you talk about that where you think inventories are? I know you’ve talked about demand weakness, but inventories, is that coming into play here as well? And the reason I mentioned that, is April I think in €“ the April quarter for you guys can go either way up or down, if there is some inventory being chewed through here, do you think that would indicate perhaps a positive sequential in the April?

Mohan Maheswaran: Yes, I think so. I have to look at it by product group. For sure, in our infrastructure business. And I’m just referring to China now. We had a very, very strong first half across all of our businesses. And I think particularly, PON has perhaps a little bit more inventory than the other segments. And that’s reflected in a weaker Q4 expectation, I think. So, yes, I would say, in China, it’s infrastructure, data center, and PON mostly a little bit of 4G wireless I think there. And then on the consumer side, again, that’s both for protection and proximity sensing. Again, we had a pretty strong previous fiscal year. And I think what we are seeing is that consumers have been fairly soft for the whole year, but particularly I would say in China and Korea.

So, those are the two main areas. On the LoRa front, there’s €“ obviously there’s some excess inventories from the Helium drop-off there, but I think that will eventually be utilized. The Helium gateway chips are the same chips that can be used for other gateways. So, I’m not so concerned there. It’s just more of a macro softness, kind of thing for China. So, we’ll see how that plays out.

Christopher Rolland: Thanks so much, Mohan.