Good evening, and thank you for joining us. I'm with Stefano Beretta, our CFO, presenting the first quarter 2025 results and the guidance for the second quarter of this year. As usual, the Q&A session will follow at the end of the presentation. Revenues recorded in the first three months of the year are in guidance, also mirroring trends of our reference market. First of all, let's talk about artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is confirming an extremely strong trend. We are riding as leaders in the testing of the logic chips. As recently discussed during our capital market day, these architectures, which use sophisticated technology and aggregate components to create single electronic devices, require advanced testing solutions based on advanced technologies. That said, we are assuming a progressive and steady increase in demand for advanced logic testing solutions. Second, the market, our reference market, is the consumer market.
More consumer export markets, as expected, posted a slight growth in the first quarter. In fact, we think that they will still suffer from a slower adoption of AI at the edge, which is confirmed to be the real catalyst. Last is the automotive and industrial. Automotive and industrial are still suffering from the ongoing inventory correction, which is expected to continue also for the next month. Based on the visibility we have right now, we confirm our positive view of 2025. Now let me turn to Stefano Beretta, who will give you more colors on our numbers.
Thank you, Stefano. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. As you will have seen in our press release, revenue in the first quarter was EUR 127.2 million, in line with the midpoint of our guidance, registering an increase of 54.4% compared to the same quarter of the prior year, and pretty in line with the prior quarter, with a sequential increase of 0.6%. Gross profit increased 64.3% compared to the same period of 2024, up to EUR 70.8 million, representing a 45% margin, above the midpoint of our guidance. Consistently, also the EBITDA closed above the midpoint of the guidance. It has almost doubled, growing by 94.3% compared to the first quarter of 2024, with a margin of 30.5%. We can flip to the next page, please. Thank you.
On this page, you can see a summary comparison between the financials at the end of the first quarter, 2024 and 2025. Just to comment that further, revenue year-on-year increased of 54.4% was driven by volume increase related to the artificial intelligence testing solutions, together with a slight recovery of the consumer market, partially mitigated by the weakness in automotive and industrial that is expected to continue for the rest of the year. It's worth also to highlight the inorganic growth related to the DIS business that was not present in the first quarter of 2024. If we have a look at the revenue, we express that the cost and currency, so using the average FX rate of the Q1 2024, would have been approximately $4 million lower than reported revenues, meaning approximately 2.5% favorable impact.
In fact, the three-month average U.S. dollar-euro for 2025 for the Q1 2025 was more or less 3 percentage points more favorable compared to the prior year, to be precise, 1.052 compared to 1.086 for 2024. On a gross profit level, the increase in the margin from 42.3%- 45% was the result of the expected recovery of our efficiency in the production processes, together with the operating leverage that our business model allows us when certain production thresholds are reached. Gross profit at cost and currency would have been approximately $3.4 million lower by using the three-month 2024 average rate. Consistently, the EBITDA reflected the same trend, showing an increase in the margin from 24.3%- 30.5%, and including a positive foreign exchange impact for approximately $3.1 million.
Moreover, as mentioned during Q4 2024, a significant reorganization process has affected the U.S. structure, whose first effects began to show in the last weeks of the quarter. Finally, to have a look at the net financial position, that is down for almost EUR 24 million in the three-month period, mainly due to EUR 7 million generated through the operating activities, more than offset by EUR 12 million absorbed by the investment of the period, EUR 7 million absorbed by the acquisition of a minority stake in Innostar Service, so a company listed in Taiwanese emerging stock market from the 8th of May. We have purchased slightly more than 9% stake. Another absorption is theoretically represented by EUR 10 million for the unrealized FX impact on the foreign currency bank accounts we currently have. We can move to the next page. Thank you.
As said during our latest capital market day, we confirmed the projection for the overall mid-single-digit growth in our reference market, with a consistent sequential increase in revenue, together with a more pronounced recovery of the profitability. That said, the second quarter of the year is expected to show the following: revenue to be about EUR 168 million, plus or minus 3%; gross margin in the range of 45.5%,+- 2%; and finally, the EBITDA margin in the range of 33.7%+- 2%. Thanks everyone for your attention. Now we can move to the Q&A session.
Thank you to the management team. Let me kindly remind everyone that for the Q&A session, you are suggested to raise your hand, or for those dialing in, press star nine on your keypad. Our first question today comes from Mr. Gianmarco Bonacina. Please, the floor to you.
Good afternoon. A couple of questions for me. The first one is, we know that your visibility is limited, but assuming that AI demand will continue and that the trends in consumer and auto industrial will remain unchanged, so no growth in the second half, it's fair to assume that for the total company, your revenues in the second half of the year should be at least similar to the one in the first half, and this actually should imply revenues around EUR 650 million for the full year. The second question is about your acquisition of this minority stake with Taiwanese company. If you can elaborate a little bit on this acquisition, what is, let's say, the optionality with this purchase, and if you can have, let's say, already a collaboration with this company, and what's the next step on this, let's say, stake? Thank you.
Thank you, Gianmarco. Let me take the first part of the question. About the second half estimate, as you correctly said, the visibility is always short, so we do not have much visibility other than the following quarter. Overall, we remain consistent with our guidance and with the information we gave during the capital market day. We do expect an organic growth for 2025 in the mid-single-digit range, together with the inorganic growth of the IS for the first part of the year, already represented by January, February, March, already actual, plus April and May expected in the second quarter. Overall, the number you said, of course, it is not confirmed million by million, by U.S. dollar by dollar, but the range is fairly, we can fairly assume it is correct.
We do expect the second part of the year in line with the first part. We have some effect that we cannot control, like FX impact. As you may know, a slight 1% fluctuation of the U.S. dollar compared to the euro can bring easily $3 million-$5 million difference in our estimate. Overall, we expect to land in the range you mentioned.
Let me answer to your second question about Innostar, the recent acquisition, the investment, I would say. Innostar is a company that we knew already since several years, and they are specialized in equipment, tools to make probe cards, to build probe cards, different tools, let's say. For us, we are following them since, again, several years, and they did a good job. Even though it's a small company, it's really an engineering company, a lot of engineers. We saw them developing, starting to develop interesting things. We decided to invest in them because we can speed up some development, internal development with them. We have already more than five joint development projects together, and it's about machines and equipment to speed to improve the automation building the probe cards.
Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Our next question today comes from Mr. Alberto Jegra. Please, the floor to you.
Good afternoon, everybody. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can indeed.
Okay. So my first question is your forex assumption behind the guidance for the second quarter. Then I have a question on the EBITDA margin for the full year, because during the last earning call, you mentioned some 30% EBITDA margin as a sort of floor for the year. Now, after this strong second quarter guidance, you will have a first half around 32%. I wonder if you have any update on the full year indication. Last one on tariff, if I'm not wrong, today you should have in place the 10% of baseline tariff applied to all the countries. How are you currently managing this 10%, considering your 15%-20% of sales delivered to the U.S.?
Okay. Thank you. Let me start from the bottom. In this case, for the tariff, general 10% is still doubtful, is to be applied, if to be applied. We have information from the U.S. that is not clear information, even from the customs. Even them doesn't have much clarity on that. We have all our shipment addressed to the U.S. that are currently on the ex-works terms, meaning that customer assume 100% the cost of the custom in case it's applied. For the moment, the company has not been affected at all from this change. When I say that there is no clarity because the 10%, the specific HTS related to our segment is expressly free of charge. There are information about the generic 10%, and there are information about the pose of all the tariff for many countries, including Italy and Europe.
There are many confused information, but so far there is no impact at all in our sales. If this is the final point to be reached, for the moment, we have not been affected. About the profitability, we mentioned to arrive at the end of the year in the range of 21%-32% EBITDA, and this is still our target for the remaining part, considering the entire year. You will see some very positive number right now, so we expect more than 33% in the second quarter, considering that the second quarter is expected to be the peak for 2025. Most of the customers now have moved their biggest campaign in the first half of the year, meaning that the second part, as mentioned, we expect to be almost flat compared to the first part.
That's why the biggest rate, the biggest peak we have now in the second quarter will be partially offset in the second part of the year. We expect to be in that range. We confirmed it already during the capital market day. Can you remind me, the first question was about our forex, about the second quarter? Unfortunately, we have a headwind in the second quarter. The expected forex impact is in the range of 1.12-1.13 for the second quarter standalone. We have seen now in the recent, in the last three to four days, it is already below this target. It is now in the range of 1.11. It is better than 1.114 or 1.113. We had a peak on 1.115 during the quarter.
This is the estimate for the Q2, so meaning that our revenue in the U.S. dollar increased more compared to the increase in euro in the second quarter.
Just a quick follow-up, because during the capital market day, you gave us sensitivity in terms of your sales exposure to the U.S. dollar. Can you give us also a rough indication of how much of your cost base is in the U.S. dollar?
In terms of ratio between euro and U.S. dollar, the ratio in favor of the dollar, let me say, has increased a bit compared to the past, especially after the acquisition of Arbor and the IS Group that are entirely expressed in U.S. dollar. We are benefiting from this network coverage currently when there is a fluctuation compared to the past. If we have to consider all the revenues we are exposed, let me say, in the range of 80%-85% in U.S. dollar, then we have, of course, Korean won and Japanese yen and Taiwanese dollar, but the most part in the $U.S.D. For the cost, I do not have this information perfectly aligned, but I would say roughly in the range of 60%, no more. Even low 60%, sorry, in terms of euro compared to $U.S.D. The majority is still in euro.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your questions. Our next question comes from Mr. George Brown. Please, the floor to you. Mr. Brown, can you hear me? Mr. Brown, can you hear us? Yeah, we can hear you. Thank you.
Brilliant. Yeah, thanks, guys, for taking my questions. I have two, if I may. Just firstly, I'm sure you've seen some reports that TSMC is asking some suppliers to cut pricing to help shield the FX impacts that they're seeing. TSMC, I think, is the majority of your sales, both directly and indirectly. Do you expect to see any pressure or price pressure going forward in the next couple of quarters? Secondly, can you help us quantify your AI exposure as a percentage of your total revenues in Q1 and what's implied in your Q2 guide as well? Thanks, guys.
Okay. Let me answer to your first question about the pricing TSMC. The answer is that we have a constant pressure. It is not related to forex or any other. This is every year, I would say, even more frequent than each year. There is a constant negotiation between us and TSMC and all the other customers. The point here is that, of course, for existing technologies, there is a small erosion of the price year by year. The good point is that we constantly develop new technologies for them because it is required for new nodes and for more complex testing. This can allow us to keep the price higher because we bring more value on the table. At the end, these customers, the most important thing is the cost of ownership, not just the price itself.
As far as we continue to innovate and bring new solutions that can create more value that can allow us to keep good pricing. Regarding the AI, we can give you the figure on considering the whole year. We are targeting it will be about 34%. It is for 2024. It was about 34%.
Okay. Brilliant. Maybe just to follow up, just on HBM, I know you're investing a lot of capacity in Taiwan for MLOs, but I believe in HBM, the current sort of micro cantilever technology uses MLCs, so the ceramic substrates. I guess that's to do with sort of thermal issues. I just want to understand if you're entering memory, do you have to invest in MLC capacity as well, or with vertical MEMS probe cards, do you utilize MLOs rather than MLCs? Any sort of color there would be helpful. Thanks.
Yes. The investment that we have done on the MLO is good also for MLC, actually. I can confirm you that it's an MLC for what we think will still be required, even though we will not go with our idea is not to go with micro cantilever springs, but more with the technology that can leverage on vertical technologies, the SoC technologies. An MLC will be in any case required in the middle as a space transformer. The investment we've done in Taiwan for the MLO is good also for the MLC. The difference is the starting material, the bulk material, but the process is basically the same. We are already able to start the manufacturing of MLC right now.
Okay. Brilliant. Thanks, guys.
Thank you very much, Mr. Brown, for your questions. Currently, we have no questions queued. We will wait just a few moments to give everyone the opportunity to raise their hands. Thank you. Let me kindly remind everyone that in order to ask a question, you should raise your hand or press star nine on your keypad if dialing in. Thank you. We have a follow-up question from Mr. Alberto Jegra. Please, the floor to you.
Yeah, just a quick follow-up on HBM. If you can provide us any color on the qualification process, do you confirm the timeline? How are the negotiations going on? If you are seeing some, let's say, specific problem, any update would be helpful.
Actually, we don't have, let's say, new updates compared to what we said during the capital market day. Basically, we are in progress with the qualifications with all the main HBM players, and the expectation is to finish qualifications by the end of the year.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. We now have the next question from Ms. Antonella Frangillo. Please, the floor to you. Ms. Frangillo, kindly unmute your line. Ms. Frangillo, can you hear us?
Yes.
Okay. Perfect. We can hear you.
Sorry if you already answered this question, but I connected a bit late. Could you quantify the DIS impact on the first quarter revenues and on the second quarter guidance?
As I mentioned, there is a peak in the second quarter, especially for DIS business that is more subject to cyclicality compared to the current probe card business we are running for many years. The peak in the second quarter is in the range of $50 million. This is the range for DIS that is very positive results compared to the other months. Again, this is the best period for the final testing solution for a testing campaign that are not expected to repeat in the next quarter. That is why we expect the second part of the year still flat compared to the first part of 2025.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Frangillo, for your question. As there are no more questions queued, I will leave the floor to the management team for any final comments. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone, for joining us today, and stay tuned for the next quarterly call. Thanks.