BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (AMS:BESI)
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Earnings Call: Q3 2018

Oct 25, 2018

Operator

Good morning, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Besi's quarterly conference call and audio webcast to discuss the company's 2018 third-quarter results. You can log in to the audio webcast via Besi's website, www.besi.com. Joining us today are Mr. Richard Blickman, CEO, and Mr. Cor te Hennepe , Senior Vice President, Finance. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded and cannot be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the company. I would now like to turn over the call to Mr. Richard Blickman. Please go ahead, sir.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Thank you. Thank you all for joining us today. We will begin by making a few comments in connection with the press release we issued earlier today and then take questions. I would like to remind you that some of the comments made during this call and some of the answers in response to your questions by management may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements may involve uncertainties and risks as described in the earnings release and other reports filed with the AFM. For today's call, we'd like to review the key highlights for our third quarter and nine-month results, and also spend some time updating you on the market, our strategy, and the outlook. First, some overall thoughts on the past quarter and the first nine months. For Q3, revenue of EUR 116.7 million and a net income of EUR 29.3 million compared favorably to expectations.

Revenue came in at the midpoint of guidance, higher than anticipated gross margins of 58%, due primarily to a more favorable product mix and an 8.5% decrease in sequential operating expenses, helped keep Besi's net margins in excess of 25%, despite a 27.6% sequential revenue decrease. In addition, orders of EUR 107.9 million increased by 25% versus the second quarter as demand recovered for mobile applications by Asian customers. Cash generation recovered as well, with net cash increasing by EUR 49.9 million versus the second quarter 2018 to reach EUR 160.1 million. Besi's nine-month 2018 results reflect solid performance and strategic execution in an assembly equipment market more challenging than 2017. Revenue of EUR 432.7 million and a net income of EUR 113.5 million declined by 1.5% and 12.4% respectively versus the comparable period of the prior year.

Our 2018 revenue development was affected by a first-half slowdown in the high-end mobile demand, followed by weakness in memory end-user markets in the third quarter, partially offset by more favorable trends experienced in automotive and computing applications. Besi responded to such challenges by rapidly aligning production, supply chain, and personnel levels to new market realities. As a result, we've been able to maintain high levels of profitability in the current market environment. Our liquidity position improved significantly this quarter. We ended the quarter with cash and deposits of EUR 443.5 million or EUR 5.97 per share, equal to almost 33% of Besi's stock price of EUR 18.17 at such date. In addition, cash flow from operations of EUR 65.7 million grew by almost EUR 58.7 million sequentially, due primarily to reduced working capital needs as we collected receivables and scaled back the supply chain.

Besi's strong cash flow generation continues to support a shareholder-friendly capital allocation program. During the third quarter, we repurchased 593,000 shares for a total of EUR 11.2 million. Of that amount, EUR 9.6 million related to the new repurchase program announced at the end of July. This brings total distribution to shareholders this year to EUR 196.5 million and EUR 470.7 million since 2011. I'd next like to speak a little bit about the current market environment. The headwinds we experienced post Q1 spread to other equipment manufacturers in the third quarter with downward revisions to second-half order forecasts by many companies. Reflecting changing market sentiment, VLSI recently took down its 2018 assembly equipment forecast from a revised 12% in April to under 3% recently. It sees a shallow downturn in 2019 of 3.5%, followed by another upward move in 2020 with new customer investment rounds.

The real question is whether the challenging conditions experienced this year reflect a temporary pulse or a larger industry downward move. We don't have an answer to that currently, given limited visibility, relatively short cycle times, and conflicting market signals. VLSI's size estimate assumes that favorable GDP trends and high-capacity utilization rates will limit the depth of any 2019 downturn. Now let me take a few moments to discuss some of our strategic initiatives in the current market environment. Periodic revenue volatility is nothing new to our industry. In fact, periods of less robust growth let us further refine our strategy and financial potential to capitalize on the next major industry upturn. As you can see on this chart, we took action in the second quarter this year to scale back headcount, primarily temporary production personnel, once we saw that market conditions were weakening.

Our objective is to reduce total headcount by approximately 16% by year-end. In addition, Besi continues to reduce European headcount and has pruned back fixed headcount in certain Asian locations, post a large production ramp last year. By way of such actions, we aim to keep net margins and cash generation well above prior trough levels. From a longer-term perspective, we're on track to reduce annualized structural costs by EUR 15 million-EUR 20 million over the next three years. We are keenly focused on initiatives to increase Besi's market presence, revenue growth, and market share in the next customer investment rounds. The particular focus is expanding our reach in the logic and memory markets in the era of the cloud and the big data. This could involve increased market share by flip-chip versus wire bond equipment due to the increased complexity, accuracy, and miniaturization requirements of next-generation applications.

In the mobile market, we're looking to roll out new camera, imaging, and other features for 5G networks to help expand our presence in both the Android and iPhone worlds, particularly with Korean and Chinese customers. Another major initiative is to expand Besi's revenue potential with the Japanese automotive supply chain, as well as with existing customers. In parallel, current development activities are focused on providing customers leading-edge advanced packaging processes such as TCB, Fan-Out Wafer-Level, panel, and wafer molding for next-generation devices. Now, a couple of words about our fourth quarter outlook. As most of you know, Besi's business is seasonal, with revenue and orders typically building in the first half of a year and sequentially receding in the second half. Over the past seven years, Q3 revenue has decreased an average of 16.1%, followed by another decline of 11% in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter.

This year, the decreases are at the upper bands of the H2 seasonality. Looking specifically to the fourth quarter, we estimate that revenue will decline by 20%-25% sequentially due to seasonal patterns and challenging industry conditions generally. We also anticipate that our gross margin should range between 54% and 56% due to a less favorable die bonding product mix than in the third quarter. Gross margin levels are still very healthy considering H2 revenue trends. Finally, we guide Q4 OpEx to be flat with the third quarter as the impact of some second-half cost reductions is not yet reflected in our quarterly OpEx totals. That ends my prepared remarks. I would like to open the call for some questions. Operator?

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or remark, you can press star one. The first question comes from Mr. Nigel van Putten. Your line is open.

Nigel van Putten
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Hi. Good afternoon, guys, thanks for taking my questions. Two of them more of a long-term perspective. First, on your revenue initiatives, that's a very interesting slide you added to the pack. I count about six initiatives, including some of the things we've heard before, Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging, TCB, but also, I think, new to me, expand in the Japanese automotive supply chain. Out of these six initiatives, do you think this could all be sort of 2019 business, or is this more of a longer-term view? I guess some of them would be more near term, some of them would be long term. Could you please maybe give us an indication what you expect more near term and more long term?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, excellent. First of all, every customer today has suppliers. In order to gain market share, either you offer better products or there are issues with the current supply chain. In downturns, it's typically the time to challenge and also our equipment is challenged by our existing customers versus competition and also with new developments to be introduced in the next technology round. Overall, this gives you an opportunity to test new opportunities which usually only are in an evaluating stage in a downturn and may lead to new market share gains in the next upturn. That's how it typically works. Why did we list these? Well, this is not new. If you look at our development over the past decade. Step by step, we have increased the top 10 customer revenues. Ten years ago, the top five did about 60%.

Today, it's the top 10. The challenge we face is to increase that further. Does that answer your question?

Nigel van Putten
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Yeah, that's clear. Maybe more specifically, I think maybe just an update on some of the things we heard before, like Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging, TCB panel, and wafer level packaging. I think in the upturn, I think in the conversations you had with us is that customers were too busy just ramping product and getting stuff out there, and indeed, in the downturn, would maybe reevaluate some of these initiatives. For instance, TCB, it's been rather quiet, I think, for the last year or two. Would that be something that you have any visibility on of returning? Or is it more, these are things in general that you're working on and in the next upturn they could potentially help, or is there any more visibility on it?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, you have to be a bit more specific. There are two areas of ongoing development and potential change. For Fan-Out and TCB, it's very important that the next technology round forces these new developments to become mainstream. That's not clear yet. Those customers which are testing these technologies are continuing that, and it could very well be that this is also tied to the 14 nanometer design era towards 10. That may open up some of these new technologies, but in the existing world, there's also a picking order in existence. Our equipment, of course, is evaluated on an ongoing basis, same with competitors. As we share with many of you, and you can find that on our quarterly presentation, we are always introducing new features on our existing machines. Either tighter accuracies or combination of accuracy and speed. Also reducing cost initiatives.

You're pushing the existing envelopes, and you should try to prepare yourself better for real technology changes. That's a combination. As we've said many times, every new round is like a deck of cards. You have new opportunities.

Nigel van Putten
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Right. No, it's clear. Maybe just one final question on the annual cost savings target of EUR 15 million-EUR 20 million by 2021. This quarter already strong, I think more temporary cost savings. Given perhaps the market challenging environment, how is the phasing of these cost savings into the next couple of years? We should maybe expect, depending on market conditions, maybe a bit more near term? Is it more of a run rate towards EUR 20 million in 2021?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

The EUR 15 million-EUR 20 million is three main programs. Number one is moving west to east of all kinds of support functions. On an ongoing basis, we are moving more than operations, the administration, the service support, technical support out of the support lab in Singapore, and that is ongoing. The second bucket is supply chain, further improving the Asian supply chain. That's an ongoing challenge. Third is common modules, common platforms. In our machines, we have 18 different platforms.

There are numerous opportunities to further reduce the cost by changing certain designs. In downturns, typically, those are the improvements next to the technology, as we discussed in the first question, to structurally reduce your cost. By streamlining your supply chain, reduce your cycle times. Cycle times are fantastic already-

They can still be much better. Some are shorter term, some are longer term. It's a combination, and that's why every year we should see certain achievements in reducing cost.

Nigel van Putten
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Right. That's very clear. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Mr. Peter Olofsen. Your line is open.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Good afternoon, gentlemen. A couple of questions. Maybe the first on memory, both in the press release and in the introduction, you referred to some weakness in memory end user markets in Q3. I always had the impression that your exposure to mainstream DRAM and NAND was rather modest. The weakness that you refer to, is that mainly linked to hybrid memory? Related to that, could you provide some update on the progress you see in terms of TCB, either in hybrid memory or in other applications, in terms of the number of customer engagements and when you expect a more meaningful contribution to your sales? I have some follow-ups.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Okay. Well, very good. Yes, you're correct. Memory has always been a smaller portion of our revenue, somewhere around 10%, and it's sometimes slightly above 10% of revenue. Still, that is an important part, and if tide goes out on other areas, and then in addition, memory held on pretty long until August, September. That was also, for us, a negative impact. On TCB development, it's quite interesting. We mentioned also in the comments, for memory, there's a distinct move towards flip-chip as a next step beyond wire bond. Testing that flip-chip will maybe lead in a generation from now towards more TCB. Still, TCB is slow. Slow because of not needed yet. That is tied to 14 nanometers to 10 nanometer delay. It is also tied simply to improved flip-chip capabilities from five micron down to three micron, also multi-head die bonders, flip-chip die bonder introductions.

That could further delay TCB, but it makes flip-chip far more exciting.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Do you see

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yeah.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Progress in TCB in other applications?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, in certain logic, but still not across the board, only in very specific applications.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

I have to follow up on automotive. On the one hand, we have seen weaker car sales in China. In Europe, we have seen the impact from WLTP. On the other hand, we see the structural growth in semiconductor content in vehicles. How is that overall playing out in terms of short-term demand? How is that affecting the investment plans of your customers?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

There are two things. One is volume, is the GDP-related automotive market. However, there are, as you very well mentioned, some disappointments in that sense. What Besi's strength is in that market, there are new advanced packaging type of solutions, smaller, power, and also in other areas of automotive, which have been developed in the previous downturn, which have been ramped to full production in the last two years. We've specifically benefited from those changes, not from the volume increase. As always, it is a mix. That also leads to the comment, don't expect automotive, historically, that has been the case, to overtake growth of the other two drivers in the industry. Communication, mobile internet devices, and also computers, they have stronger growth drivers than automotive. Automotive is between 15% and 20% of our revenue for a long time.

We've gained also market share in automotive in the last two, three years, especially in the last year with the ramp. That may also lead to further market share gains in the automotive, as indicated in the comments.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

At this moment, you don't see any hesitation from your clients to cut back on spending, given all the uncertainty in their end market?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

I would say not yet. You would only see that once GDP starts to slow down.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay. My final question is around M&A. You clearly have an M&A war chest following the issuance of two convertibles in recent years. Now we have seen the valuation of your own stock coming down, also for listed peers. Has that also resulted in the expectations of potential sellers becoming more realistic?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

You have to look at it more fundamentally. When do people sell? There are two periods in general. One is selling in an upturn. The next one is in a downturn when certain customer or company-specific metrics do not offer better growth in future. To be more specific, scale is important. Certain capabilities, longer-term growth, and development of operations on a global basis. In downturns, those consolidation or real integration of companies leading to more optimum cost structures are being evaluated. Depending upon the length of a down cycle, more or less of these opportunities are being investigated. We've been very clear all along. For us, it's only interesting to look at acquisitions which improve our market's position towards our customers, but moreover, improve our margin structure. That is the key to look at.

We are not dreaming of increasing scale and by that, increasing margins. Margins are product-related, so you have to look at potential improving above the current margin structures.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

there, you're referring to the gross margin or the EBIT margin?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Always gross margin.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Yeah.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

In equipment business, number one is gross margin, because that's the value customers provide to specific products.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay. My final question, which relates to the mobile market. I noticed that order intake was up in Q3 compared with Q2. You refer to higher bookings for mobile applications. Is that an indication that in that particular market, the worst may be behind? Is there also some quarter volatility in play, and therefore, we should not read too much in that pickup?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, as you can see in slide, I think it's 24, the inside of a high-end smartphone, we're involved in many of the components in those products. Those components also have specific cycles. In addition, customers are always improving those specific modules in terms of yield and in terms of cost. The orders in the third quarter were related to other parts in those mobile devices than in the first half of the year. Still highly attractive. It's not a new round of smartphones. It is improvements, additions to the current generations.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

When you say improve the current generations, you're referring to packaging technology or current generation of smartphone features?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Features.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Yeah, okay.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

All those features, they all have a life cycle, and they are not all, let's say, succeeded at the same time. There are certain features which have been introduced last year. Some of those processes can be improved. That's why we had a substantial amount of certain kits onto those machines, improving the yield, and increasing the output of those machines. There were some new features, but also in the existing technology generation. Maybe in a year or Yeah, that's the usual pattern, two, three years, you have a whole new generation. 2017 was the launch, 2018 improvement year, 2019 maybe preparation for a next round. That's the typical cycle. There's also a slide in our presentation going back to 2006 in the appendix, where you see those generations over time.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay. This is helpful. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Mr. Paul Moran. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Paul Moran
Head of Research, Northern Trust Securities

Good afternoon. I wanted to pick up on the statement about the cycle, whether it is a traditional downturn or not. I mean, who really knows? In your words, would you describe 2015 as a traditional downturn for Besi?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yes. I mean, 2014 was a peak, 2017 was a peak, 2018 is, let's say, the sunset of the 2017 cycle, and those are very usual patterns. 2016 was a slower year, and 2017 was the next peak.

Paul Moran
Head of Research, Northern Trust Securities

In terms of seasonality, you've been very clear on how that works, certainly from a revenue point of view, would you also expect the type of seasonality that you've seen from an order booking point of view? Do you think that will be maintained, or are we in such a volatile period that you can't really say that about what's going to happen in Q1?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, you're very right. As we said in the comments, our visibility is typically a quarter. Our customers, if you simply map the end customers, they also don't provide that visibility. You have to look at patterns, the patterns are usually stronger first half than second half because of consumer end products, which are mostly launched in the second half of the year. Production is built up in the first half and more towards the second quarter then. Whether it's a slower year or a stronger growth year, the seasonal patterns have mostly been as they are. That's to be seen. It's too early to tell.

Paul Moran
Head of Research, Northern Trust Securities

Understood. Just a clarification, if we look at the internal orders again, if we look at Q2, and we look at the EUR 86 million that was booked in Q2, is that including the order cancellation, the missing EUR 28 million that got canceled?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yes.

Paul Moran
Head of Research, Northern Trust Securities

That's in there. Okay.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

For clear understanding, actually, those orders should not have been placed in the first quarter.

Paul Moran
Head of Research, Northern Trust Securities

Right.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yeah, in numbers and it's right, but your statement is very correct.

Paul Moran
Head of Research, Northern Trust Securities

Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you very much.

Operator

The next question is from Mr. Antoine Burkalt. Your line is open.

Speaker 9

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my question. Just a real quick one on the balance sheet. I see you, obviously after the two emission of the two convertible bonds, boasting fairly significant liquidity resources now. How much of that do you actually need to run the business on an ongoing basis now? I guess the previous caller did mention M&A opportunities. I was just wondering, is there an opportunity given where some of your convertible bonds are trading at the moment for you to apply some of that liquidity to buy back bonds?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, that's an interesting thought. We've done that in the past. We issued our first convert in 2005. We bought back in 2008, at the second half when markets started to deteriorate. It's very attractive terms, about 40% of that outstanding convert. That's not the case today yet. You're very right. If you see at our cash flow generation, we don't need to convert for our own operation. As always mentioned, we use additional capital for strategic objective. As I answered to a previous question, yes, there are certainly M&A opportunities in this world. The best is to be prepared for that, especially situations in downturns, which offers our shareholders far more attractive returns than financing those acquisitions in downturns. We have a history of raising capital in upturns and spending it wisely on strategic developments in downturns.

Speaker 9

Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Next question is from Mr. Robert Sanders. Your line is open.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm actually joined a little bit later. Apologies if you answered this in your opening remarks, but I just had a question on the China tariffs. A lot of the IDM use packages in China. It does seem like they're looking to go to the Philippines and Malaysia quite fast. I was just wondering, on your China business only, have you seen any hesitation from those packaging companies, given the threat of tariffs? I've got a couple follow-ups. Thanks.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yes. Well, the answer is yes. It's widely publicized. There will be a reset of capacities in the region. Some are expanding in Vietnam, some are in the Philippines, some in Taiwan. That's happening.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Got it. Presumably then that means that companies have to re-qualify lines in these new countries. Once they do, presumably that could actually lead to more demand for your tools as they qualify and ramp up and the other tools in China stay idle, or is that something you think is not significant?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, I would like to say it differently. The risk you run is that this leads to an overcapacity. Having multiple production volumes is potentially a risk to utilization rates, but not at this moment yet.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Just a couple more questions. You obviously had a great year in 2017 led by a major OEM and what they were doing on the front side of their device. I was just wondering, given how active they are on their solution for the world-facing side, whether you thought that that opportunity, whether it ramps in 2019 or 2020, nobody knows, I think at this stage, with most people seem to think 2020, whether that opportunity could be as big as it was for you in 2017. I think that could potentially be a big recovery thing driver for you. I'm just interested whether you might see some reuse of the existing tools out there.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, reuse is not to be expected. If things go as they go, then, look again at the slide going back to 2006, where you see in every cycle, we have increased substantially in 2010, 2014, 2017. We've done our homework right. You can see that in the margins. If we continue to do the development right, there could be a significant higher next round again, and that's, of course, our challenge.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Got it.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Our chances have improved.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Just last question from me, given the yield issues that are well-known at the major U.S. IDM, at 10 nanometer, it seems to me one of the issues, along with many other issues, is that the die size is too large, and they do seem to be moving in this kind of chiplet direction, as are a lot of the foundry customers as well. I was just wondering, if you were to see a kind of wholesale migration to this chiplet approach rather than having large dies, how significant could that be for your business and how material it could be in the next couple of years? Thank you.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

We're developing on both fronts. The challenge for the large dies is clearly for all of us an opportunity. Also accuracies further decrease. That's one direction, and the other direction is, of course, multiple dies to solve that. Those are very significant developments for next year. In a year from now, we will know much more. It's fair to say that Besi is involved in all these developments.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Got it. It could be a material driver rather than, not just a kind of 2% of revenue driver. You're talking about something quite material potentially.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yeah, it will be the next generation mainstream. With the extension of the 14-nanometer world, that also does us pretty well.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Okay, great. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Next question is from Mr. Edwin de Jong. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Good afternoon, gentlemen. A few questions left. Also on, what is your direct exposure now still to the export sector there, and are you thinking about changing your footprint or, yeah, maybe elaborate a little bit on that.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

If I understand you correctly, if there are more investments outside of China?

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Yeah. By you. Are you extending more, outside of China now? You've extended quite fast in the first few years, to broaden your Chinese footprint.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

It's an excellent question. First of all, China capacity has been on top of the existing capacities in Malaysia.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Yeah.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Technology moves on. Next generations are always first built up in Malaysia. We are certainly capable to do more in Malaysia because we have offloaded step by step. By year-end, we should be able to build all platforms in China. That gives us the flexibility to do, in both locations, the existing product ranges. We're very well fit for both.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Okay. You're relatively independent on what was happening-

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yeah. We can also export out of China. China is very happy to export.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Yeah. They are.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

It is not only for China, but of course that is most preferably. Still, it is in an early phase, so it offers us great flexibility.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Yeah. Okay. Clear. Then maybe a little bit on the M&A opportunities. Can you maybe say a little bit on, are there more opportunities coming by in the last few quarters than there were a year ago? Or maybe give some flavor. Are you looking at more propositions now or are you actually really looking at something now?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

We're always looking at the world because it's very exciting. It's fair to say that in the second half of a cycle, sunset, there are definitely more companies for sale than in the first half of a cycle. Many smaller companies are typically for sale in that phase, and they're mostly the companies with lesser margins, lesser product positions.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Yeah.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Often issues.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

That's not what you're looking for, right?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

It depends on the opportunity when things are in a better situation, whether it offers potentially higher margins. That's the only reason you should spend effort on that. Everyone revisits a big picture strategy in every cycle, and the bigger pictures are typically discussed more in the trough of a downturn.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Clear. Finally, I think that Robert already asked much on this, but in the 3D sensing part, one of your main clients, of course, is also extending into Android. What are the consequences for you at the moment? How's the market looking for you? What is the potential now?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, not much has changed in that sense. Any application with those technical requirements, but also there are more suppliers of 3D sensing, but also that technology is changing in a sense, multiple cameras, different modules again. There's a lot of development ongoing for the next generation, where we are involved, and hopefully we will benefit from those new cycles.

Edwin de Jong
Senior Equity Research Analyst, NIBC Bank

Okay.

Operator

The last question is from Mr. Peter Olofsen. Your line is open.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Yes, thanks for taking the follow-up. It's about the gross margin, which was above expectations in Q3. In response to one of my earlier questions, you referred to selling kind of upgrade kits. Is that what drove the gross margin upside, or were there some other product categories, which were rather strong, like plating, for instance?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, also, again, a good question. We have, I think, said several times that the mobile internet devices as such are not the highest margin products. That is a highly competitive world. The higher margins are in other applications. The mix determines then the final margin. We have many different products. Is it more plating? No. It is across the board. Otherwise, the margins are not in the high 50s. Yeah, some of it is retrofits are higher margin. Sometimes they are not, because there can be technical issues. It is not easy to say it is because of this or because of that.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

No, but.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Spare parts support was also very strong with the ramp of the new generation phones. There were many items contributing to a favorable market, margin development.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay, at least the end market mix was supported. Still, you have a backlog and an order book going into the quarter. I would guess you have a reasonable insight to which customers you will ship.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yep.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Where did then the positive surprise come from?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Basically, from the different mix compared to the second quarter of less high-end mobile product applications. The percentage is less, but that's in general terms. We had some favorable other orders which had higher margins than we anticipated. Some supply chain improvements coming through, some cost savings. We had less under applied. We expected due to the decline that we would have a larger under applied, but we were able to reduce our flexible headcount faster. It's a combination.

Peter Olofsen
Analyst, Kepler Cheuvreux

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Mr. Blickman, there are two more questions. Is there any time?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Of course.

Operator

Yes. The next question is from Mr. Jim Fontanelli. Your line is open.

Jim Fontanelli
Senior Analyst, Arete Research

Yeah. Thank you. You touched on earlier the opportunity around world-facing. Whether it comes in 2019 or 2020, I was just wondering whether you are agnostic around the technology choice for world-facing. Whether it would be primarily a structured light led solution or a time-of-flight solution, does that make any difference to your overall revenue opportunity into world-facing whenever it launches?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, yes, as said many times, those decisions are taken much later down the development path. We can't make a judgment today whether this direction or that direction will prevail.

Jim Fontanelli
Senior Analyst, Arete Research

Are you in a development process that encompasses both of those potentials?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Yes. What could also happen is that the next generation are still being solved with existing. It's very difficult. That was the disappointment we had in Q2, that the expected change of the design of a certain module simply was pushed out because the yield was unacceptable.

Jim Fontanelli
Senior Analyst, Arete Research

Right. Maybe just to follow up again on the 2019 investment backdrop, clearly, there are two sort of big wafer migration programs sitting out there for your largest foundry and logic customers to 7nm and 7nm+ and to 10 respectively. Have you seen any of the advanced packaging investment cycle sitting behind those two sets of wafer migrations? Have you seen those yet in terms of order flow, or is that something we can expect later on, over the course of the next few quarters?

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Later on. It's still development phase.

Jim Fontanelli
Senior Analyst, Arete Research

Great. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Mr. Robert Sanders. Your line is open.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Sorry, just a bit of housekeeping. Just on your dividend policy, is it still we should model still 80% of earnings? That seems to be the ballpark, but I just wanted to check. Thanks.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

It's between 40% and 100%. We'll make that call in February once we have the outcome for the full year and also a better view on 2019. That's the range.

Robert Sanders
Analyst, Deutsche Bank

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

There are no further questions at this moment.

Richard Blickman
CEO, Besi

Well, I thank everyone for spending the time and the questions, very interesting. When you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Thanks. Goodbye.