Iqe Share Discussion Threads

[bbonsall] 29/2/2024 18:03

Are these the two partnerships IQE referred to? I leave this to the experts.

6 Oct 2022
IQE plc (AIM:  IQE, "IQE" or the "Group"), the leading supplier of compound semiconductor wafer products and advanced material solutions to the global semiconductor industry, is pleased to announce it has entered into a partnership with MICLEDI Microdisplays (“MICLEDI̶1;) focused on the large-scale commercialisation of microLED technology.

10 May 2022
IQE plc (AIM:  IQE, "IQE" or the "Group"), the leading supplier of compound semiconductor wafer products and advanced material solutions to the global semiconductor industry, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with Porotech, a pioneer in microLED and GaN-based semiconductor technology. 
The focus of the partnership is to develop, scale and commercialise Porotech's unique wafer technology that achieves all three colours (RGB) on a single 200 or 300mm GaN-based wafer for ultra-high-density and efficient microLEDs, the applications for which include AR/MR/VR, wearable devices, smart displays and large-scale direct view displays.

[crosswires] 29/2/2024 17:24

Guild, what have I said that is “as bad as Crosswires suggests”?

I’m merely laying out the AMS, Micro LED, future Apple watch news.

However It’s interesting that the more you read on Micro LED the more you realise the long term struggles to commercialise it. For the past few months there have been suggestions in the technology press that the intro of this new tech into the watch was going to be pushed back to 2027 from 2025. It seems that the costs to produce them are much higher. Why would Apple pay 4x the OLED costs ($150 v $36) for a 2” watch screen that will barely notice a difference. Perhaps this is the issue

However IQE have two Micro LED customer partnerships, and Apple will have several suppliers chalked in, so it may just be a revenue delay for IQE at worst, after all we haven’t spent $1.4b on a new factory.

If we hear from another supplier that they have also shelved production plans for Micro LED then we can then perhaps conclude it’s something that is going to take longer than IQE thought to increase revenues.

But for right now, let’s remain positive as we may have had no commercial ties to AMS for Micro LED

[guildedge] 29/2/2024 17:13

From their H1 results

Development of 200mm (8") Red, Green and Blue (RGB) epitaxial wafer products for microLED display qualification

Ongoing investment in R&D with £1.6m (H1 2022: £1.6m) of development costs in the period focused on power electronics and microLEDs

2022 full results
With a renewed focus on
deepening existing customer
relationships and forming new
strategic partnerships, this
customer-centric approach was
demonstrated throughout 2022.
We were pleased to announce
many strategic and long-term
customer partnerships, including
with Lumentum, AWSC, SK siltron
and two MicroLED partners.

In 2022 they talked about entering in the Micro LED market.

Unclear what percentage of sales/future sales might relate to Micro LED. If the news is bad as Crosswire suggests an RNS will quickly follow. This seems more like future sales than current as it's a new market for IQE. Assuming this is only impacting AMS Micro LED.

Always the unknown with these firms. This is why IQE are diversifying. They do mention 2 Microled partners so it's not a complete loss with AMS.

[longtallsally] 29/2/2024 17:05

Now would be a good time for an insider to buy, to show the market the Micro LED issue is not relevant to IQE

[crosswires] 29/2/2024 16:51

Apparently they are still in discussions with their “customer̶1; and apparently LG have bought up patents to speed up and improve the yield their own Micro LED production. Apparently it’s a very hard “thing” to produce…

If we don’t hear anything in a March TU then I would dismiss the imminent impact on 2024 revenues. If it impacts on the 3x revenue by 2027 then as I said this morning, I (and the market) was never banking on that anyway!

[guildedge] 29/2/2024 16:29

You would think there is a high chance IQE was supplying AMS Micro LED parts.
hxxps://compoundsemiconductor.net/article/116109/Ams_Osram_qualifies_Aixtron_tools_for_Micro_LEDs

hxxps://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2023/may/iqe-230523.shtml

This is part of the GAN market IQE was confident about for this year? That is a blow if it is. Not good when AMS are writing off 600-900m Euros.

[longtallsally] 29/2/2024 16:11

You’re not wrong Dave, there’s always something!

Be interesting to see if there is a late large reported sell today.

[davemac3] 29/2/2024 15:56

It’s hard going here

[crosswires] 29/2/2024 15:44

I guess it only matters if for some reason Micro LED is seen as too expensive or difficult to roll out for whatever reason and Apple / the industry delay or pass entirely on the technology.

Apple have been connected with using it for the past few years but to hear AMS saying they are effectively cancelling production / tooling is strange.

[lord loads of lolly] 29/2/2024 15:43

bbonsall - sure, but it might matter if the OVERALL market's suddenly not looking quite as large as it did yesterday.

Or if IQE's not in with every single microLED partner. And has been unfortunate enough to pick one whose supply contract's just gone south. Which is presumably how today's news is currently being interpreted. Unless all the fuss is simply about those CFO performance* related options

* where performance is measured in terms of still having a pulse.

[theyak] 29/2/2024 15:42

Ref, the market place being informed.
I think it’s something along the lines of, the market has to be informed if the company is aware of information that could cause the share price to move substantially. Is a 10% move substantial for a company on AIM that’s a little volatile and valued around £200m?

[bbonsall] 29/2/2024 15:32

Surely microLEDs will be in demand. If IQE provides the basic wafers needed, why does it matter who the customer is? IQE has previously said it is agnostic about who the end user is.

[beeezzz] 29/2/2024 15:31

Snouts in the trough comes to mind....

[lord loads of lolly] 29/2/2024 15:15

lpavlou - I'm not sure that's true. There've been significant impacts on IQE from sector de-stocking in recent years. And the first we really ever got to know of them was on release of the results/TU.

In any case, any major impact from AMS' announcement might only be felt in a year or more's time.

As others have said, nobody knows if anything's remotely changed here since yesterday. But the market reaction shows just how fragile sentiment remains towards IQE right now.

[lpavlou] 29/2/2024 14:19

If the AMS news was material to 24 numbers there would be an RNS.

[crosswires] 29/2/2024 13:21

Let’s face it, after the last few years where IQE has been a mess, it’s easy to see why some PIs have been spooked out on bad news in the Micro LED sector . I suspect that’s all today’s fall is, volume is average. If it stays low i’ll be tucking another £20k into my ISA.

[tradertrev] 29/2/2024 12:35

It's only a million shares at exercise price of 21p - if the shares triple she makes £400k. I think we would all be happy with the shares tripling.

[sweenoid] 29/2/2024 12:01

Here is AMS list of LED products although the list may well exclude any Apple specified product


Can’t see IQE involvement there.

As for Apple - the demands they place on suppliers makes the ‘bid’, development and most importantly qualification incredibly costly and risky. On the whole the entire financial risk is Apples supplier and not Apple itself, it’s cut throat and always has been, numerous companies that ‘won’ supply contracts have been dispensed with or marginalised. Imagine having to finance a production run of tens of thousands of ‘chips’ with no guarantee of getting the ‘gig’ 🤔

You only have to look at what they did to Imagination to understand the cut- throat nature- they issued a statement stating they were developing their own GPU , eventually dispensing with IMG , they set up a development factory close to IMG HQ and advertised gpheavily for engineers. IMG never recovered its share price plummeting and CEO dispensed with and taken over. To this day Apple is still totally reliant on Imagination’s IP which was well protected by patents which Apple couldn’t circumvent. What a way to treat an innovative small supplier! 🤨

Anyhow that’s enough on this matter because none of us will ever know and frankly I don’t care anyhow 😉

Hutchmeister- agreed it is disheartening - the new new CFO’s award is purely a signing on bonus with no caveats. I guess to acquire someone of her callibre and experience it’s considered obligatory and a price worth paying? She had better be worth it!
S

[hutchmeister] 29/2/2024 11:39

A million shares with no performance conditions, just need to stay two years. Seems every RNS recently is employee shares. Without any corporate financial news other than stock give always everyone gets disheartened

[lord loads of lolly] 29/2/2024 11:37

Amishp67 - I kinda care about the share price. Not the trading volume.

Guildedge - Might have known you'd blame it on an institution selling their shares to another. Feels like your answer to everything. You've no idea what's caused today's weakness, so I politely suggest you don't pretend otherwise. As for not expecting any TU / Final Results RNS in March - really? That's been the timing for the past three years.

hutchmeister - yes, it's scandalous that ANY option package should vest subject only to the employee not keeling over in the interim. The financial equivalent of sticking two fingers up to long term shareholders who've borne all the risk (often for little/no gain - or even a stonking loss).

[guildedge] 29/2/2024 11:32

The RNS and share price movement are not related.

What is possible is Citigroup have found another buyers for their shares. No fund is going to buy heavily here. Not without solid news. Or a discounted share price. Really not sure shorters are that active here now. Before Citigroup did big off market trades so that is possible.

IQE has stated the big bounces will come from the unlocking of GAN. I think this will be Q2-Q4.

I don't expect any TU in March or before the results. I think the big orders will take a bit longer.

A share which is on the rise is CMCX. Good chance it could keep on rising.

[amishp67] 29/2/2024 11:19

Volume is low..not concerned