Hello, and welcome to the Soitec H1 FY 2022 results call. My name is Josh, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you will be connected to an operator. I'll now hand you over to your host, Paul Boudre, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Soitec H1 2022 results conference. I am Paul Boudre, Soitec's CEO, and I'm very pleased to be with you today along with Léa Alzingre, our CFO, and Steve Babureck, our Investor Relations Officer. Next slide. We have a lot to cover today. First of all, our strong performance in H1, both at the top line and at the bottom line. Second, our business activities have accelerated in our three end markets. In mobile communications, we continue to strengthen our leadership, and we have seen the first 5G millimeter-wave smartphone embedding FDSOI products. Smart devices continue to benefit from strong market dynamics with silicon photonics, facial recognition and edge computing. In automotive and industrial, we made key developments regarding the silicon carbide.
We announced yesterday the acquisition of NOVASiC and a joint development with Mersen on polysilicon carbide substrates. Finally, we confirm our guidance for the ongoing fiscal year 2022. Revenue expected to be at around $975 million. EBITDA margin around 34% with a potential upside to reach around 35%. Adjusted net cash out related to capital expenditure confirmed at around EUR 240 million. Next slide, please. Let's start with the highlights of our first semester. Next slide. Soitec's activity continues to be supported by the long-term megatrends that underpin robust growth in the semiconductor industry and support the need for more connectivity, more energy efficiency and more intelligence.
The strong ongoing 5G deployment, further recovery in the automotive market and solid market trends for smart devices contributed to a record semester. Next slide, please. In H1 2022, we benefit from the triple effect of our increased activity. Very strong sales, improved operating leverage and better financial performance. Our EUR 373 million revenues was up 53% at constant exchange rate. Our 36.8% EBITDA margin reflects higher operating leverage and a very strong industrial performance. Our EUR 59 million operating cash flow has been impacted by the change in working capital as we are preparing for a very strong H2. Léa will comment on these numbers further in the financial sections. Next slide, please.
We have continued to strengthen our company with recruitment support to support our growth and further commitments to promote diversity and inclusion across Soitec. We have maintained our innovation intensity with EUR 44 million contributions to gross R&D and 18 new patent families to support new applications. On the procurement side, we keep securing supply and raw materials and equipment, and we have benefited from favorable phasing of LTAs with suppliers on bulk material side. Next slide, please. The strong loading of our fabs was a major driver behind our strong H1 2022 performance. We continue to ramp up across all our product lines to address the increasing demand for our differentiated products.
In Bernin 3, our 150 mm POI substrates for filters are ramping up at a very fast pace, and we have installed the first tools to prepare for 200 mm qualification. On silicon carbide, as we are making progress towards industrialization, we have confirmed our site selection subject to financial terms negotiation. Our 200 mm fabs are running at full capacity, and we have significantly improved yields on new products in Bernin 1. Finally, on 300 mm, we have progressed faster than expected on the Bernin 2 capacity increase from 650,000 to 700,000 wafers per year, and we have made great progress on our ramp-up in Pasir Ris. Next slide, please. In July 2021, our corporate purpose was voted during our AGM. We are the innovative soil from which smart and energy-efficient electronics grow into amazing and sustainable life experiences.
It materializes our ambitions to share the value we create with all our stakeholders across our value chain and beyond to a wider ecosystem. Our ambitious target on fighting climate change have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, in line with the 1.5-degree C pathway. We have also increased our commitments towards developing a more diverse and inclusive company. Finally, we are progressing on reporting our approach, targets, and achievements to the markets, including rating agencies, with the recent publications of our fiscal 2021 sustainability report. Next slide. This concludes the highlight of a busy and successful H1 2022 semesters. Now let's move on to our end markets. Next slide, please. On mobile communications, we are experiencing strong growth on existing products, RFSOI for 4G and 5G smartphones.
We are also progressing on the development and the adoptions of new products for 5G. POI for sub-6 GHz smartphone filters is ramping up well. More recently, the first smartphone integrating FDSOI for millimeter wave has been commercialized. Finally, we are also making progress on the development of new products for 5G infrastructures, GaN-on-Si, GaN-on-SiC. On the end market side, we confirm our assumptions for 5G smartphones units with around 520 million in 2021 and around 750 million in 2022. Next slide, please. We are also benefiting from a strong rebound of the automotive market, where our products, Power-SOI and FDSOI, are getting increasing traction. We are also progressing on new developments to improve the energy efficiency of electric vehicles and accelerate its adoption.
We are progressing towards the industrialization of SmartSiC, and we are now under evaluations with several silicon carbide device makers. Next slide, please. Over the past months, we have made significant progress towards the industrialization of our SmartSiC solutions. We have notably, I mean, developed a solution based on polysilicon carbide that is expected to bring even more value at system level, thanks to better energy efficiency. We are progressing on our industrialization roadmap now, working on product evaluations with our customers worldwide. We have started to size the energy saving allowed by SmartSiC compared to current silicon carbide technology. First numbers are around 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide saved per 500,000 wafers produced. It will be a greener and smarter technology. Next slide, please. We continue to build up a strong silicon carbide program.
First of all, acquisition of NOVASiC adds a critical technological block to our portfolio. Polishing and wafering further differentiates our smart silicon carbide technology. Second, the JDA signed with Mersen will allow the development of polysilicon carbide substrate to optimize power and silicon carbide components through the very low electric resistivity for better energy efficiency, of course. While we have consolidated our silicon carbide offering, we have also made progress on the fab decision process with the confirmation of our site selections subject to financial terms negotiation. Next slide. Now let's move onto smart devices where we are benefiting from solid market trends. FDSOI traction is increasing with growing appetite for low power connectivity SoC, materialized by design wins on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
A major SOI strong demand is driven by success on high-end smartphones and solid perspective for the next years. Silicon Photonics is benefiting from strong activity on data centers. Looking into the future, we are seeing an increasing number of healthcare applications being developed on Silicon Photonics. Finally, Dolphin Design has made significant progress on its IP portfolio with several design launches and the commercializations of its processing IP portfolio. In fact, we will share with you our vision for smart devices during CES Las Vegas in January. This conclude my remarks related to the business update. I will now leave the floor to Léa to hand over the financial results. Léa?
Thank you, Paul, and hello everyone. As Paul stated, I am happy to report that as we committed, we resume our growth trajectory, and we closed a record semester for revenue, EBITDA, gross profit and net profit. We reached EUR 373 million of revenue, representing a 53% organic growth as compared with last year, and a 36.8% EBITDA margin. Our operating cash flow reflects the impact of the strong growth on our working capital. I will come back to this in the following slides. Next slide, please. We have disclosed our H1 revenue in October, so no surprise here. Let me focus on the major highlights. Over 53% growth this semester, driven by the increasing success of 300 millimeter products. Compared to H1 last year, 300 millimeter sales grew by 97%, excluding currency effects.
This is a direct result of a sharp volume increase, thanks to the strong demand and thanks to our capacity expansion plans. The growth came from all our 300 millimeter products, RF SOI, FDSOI, imagers and photonics SOI. Regarding our 150 millimeter and 200 millimeter wafer, sales increased by 23%. We enjoy higher sales of power SOI products, thanks to the strong rebound in the automotive market. In addition, we benefited from the continuous ramp-up in the production of 150 millimeter POI wafers for RF filters at our Bernin 3 facility. Finally, as usual, sales in royalties and other revenues are mainly related to Dolphin Design and Soitec Belgium. Let's talk now about profitability. Next slide, please. The group reached EUR 131 million of gross profit, which represents a 35.2% gross margin.
It translates into a 4.8-point improvement over H1 last year, despite an unfavorable FX effect. Our strong growth improved the loading of our fabs and our operating leverage. On top of that, we enjoy a very good industrial performance with better yields and very efficient cost control. This industrial performance is also the consequence of industrial choices we implemented some months ago, as we decided to partially internalize epitaxy and research capabilities. Finally, as we had anticipated, we benefited from a more favorable phasing of our long-term agreements with the key bulk suppliers during this first semester. Next slide, please. Out of this EUR 131 million of gross profit I just commented, we generated EUR 75 million of current operating income, which is an operating margin slightly above 20% of our revenue.
We significantly invested in R&D with net R&D expenses from EUR 18 million to EUR 28 million, which represent a 58% increase over H1 last year. This reflects higher labor costs due to hirings and external expenses, as well as higher depreciation expenses related to both capitalized R&D and innovation tools. We increased our R&D efforts to strengthen our positioning in each of our three end markets: mobile communication, automotive and industrial, and smart devices. To maintain leadership in SOI business, to go deeper in POI development for the next product generations, to speed up on silicon carbide, as Paul previously explained, and to continue to develop Dolphin Design portfolio. Regarding SG&A, we keep structuring our multi-regional footprint to prepare for growth beyond FY 2022. We contain SG&A compared to sales.
In a high growth context, the increase in our SG&A expenses was contained at +EUR 6 million year-on-year. Employee expenses increased due to new hirings during last year and during the current period, and higher share-based compensation plans approved during previous fiscal year, especially with the increase of the share price. Next slide, please. At the net income level, we also improved profitability as our net profit increased from EUR 22 million in H1 last year to EUR 74 million at the end of September 2021. Our net result represents 20% of our revenue.
In addition to the improvement of the current operating income commented just before, we recorded a non-recurring income of EUR 9 million that is mainly made of the reversal of the depreciation related to our Singapore plant, initially booked in FY 2016. Regarding our financial results, we reported a loss of nearly EUR 5 million this semester as compared to a loss of EUR 10 million last year due to an increase of financial expenses for EUR 4 million, mostly related to non-cash interest following the issuance of our new convertible bonds in October 2020, and a foreign exchange related gain of EUR 3 million due to a favorable FX rate effect as compared with the net loss of EUR 6 million last year.
Finally, our income tax continues to benefit from tax loss carry-forwards, and in addition, we booked for the first time a deferred tax asset on tax loss carry-forward in Singapore for EUR 2.5 million. Next slide, please. Let's conclude the P&L chapter with EBITDA margin, the main profitability indicator of our guidance. The EBITDA from continuing operations amounted to EUR 138 million in H1 2022, up by 78% from EUR 77 million in H1 2021. Despite unfavorable currency impact and continuous effort in R&D and SG&A, the EBITDA margin stood at 36.8% of revenue in H1 2022, compared with 30.4% in H1 2021, benefiting from a strong operating leverage and a very good industrial performance. Let's look at cash and balance sheet now. Next slide, please.
Overall, net operating cash generated by continuing operations went down from EUR 102 million in H1 2021 to EUR 59 million in H1 2022. Let's keep in mind that we started to grow again this semester, while our revenue was flat last year, which mechanically translated into higher working capital needs. Change in working capital reached EUR 82 million during H1 2022, compared to a cash inflow of EUR 31 million recorded in H1 2021. The cash outflow from working capital recorded in H1 2022 came as a result of a EUR 37 million increase in inventories related to the strong expansion in 300 mm finished goods and in POI to prepare for H2 2022. A EUR 20 million increase in trade receivables, reflecting the growth of the activity.
A EUR 19 million increase in other receivables, mainly research tax credits and tax receivables, and a EUR 7 million decrease in trade payables and other liabilities, mainly related to the payment of social contribution on employee shareholding plans. We paid lower tax than last year due to tax reimbursement and lower tax down payments expected in FY 2022. Cash outflows from investing activities reached EUR 103 million as compared with EUR 48 million last year. Capital expenditure was mainly related to capacity investments carried out both in Singapore for 300-millimeter SOI wafer production and in Bernin for 150-millimeter POI wafer production. They also include investments in R&D. Next slide, please.
We moved from a cash position of EUR 644 million at the end of March 2021 to EUR 590 million cash position at the end of September 2021, due to negative EUR 44 million free cash flows as CapEx outpace operating flows during this first semester. We did not book any new financing during the period, so the financing outflows are related to loans reimbursements. Next slide, please. Our balance sheet remained very strong in H1, with a EUR 590 million cash position at the end of the period. On the debt side, we end in this half year with a total gross debt of EUR 637 million.
The impact of our OCEANE 2023 convertible bond conversion is minimal in H1, EUR 12 million, as conversion requests from bondholders essentially came after the end of this first semester. The H2 impact will be more significant, as it will reduce our gross debt by EUR 130 million. Non-current assets are driven by CapEx. Current assets and liabilities driven by seasonality effects versus March 2021 and by the activity increase. Next slide, please. Finally, a few KPIs to underline the strength of our balance sheet. All in all, we reinforced our balance sheet structure during this semester. Equity is up EUR 90 million, benefiting from the conversion of the OCEANE 2023 for EUR 12 million and from the result of the period. Net debt increased from EUR 4 million to EUR 47 million due to the cash used to invest in CapEx during the period.
On this note, I will give the floor to Paul to comment on our outlook.
Thanks, Léa. Now, let me conclude our prepared remarks by sharing with you some forward-looking statements. Next slide. As we announced in October, we expect fiscal year 2022 sales to reach around $975 million. It represents an annual growth of around 45% at constant exchange rates. Organic growth will continue to be driven by all three end markets: ongoing 5G deployment, further recovery of automotive market, sustained market trends for smart devices. We will be able to capture part of this very strong demand, thanks to our very strong operational performance as we demonstrated in H1. Thanks to a higher operating leverage, driven by a robust level of activity and a strong industrial performance, we expect fiscal year 2022 EBITDA margin to reach around 34.4% with the potential upside to reach around 35%.
We will continue to benefit from the full loading of Bernin 1 and Bernin 2 industrial facilities, higher output at Bernin 3, and an increased loading of Singapore plant. We will have some headwinds in H2 compared to H1, such as raw material and energy costs, as well as the phasing of FX hedging contracts. Finally, we confirm our net cash out related to capital expenditure at around EUR 240 million as we invest in our capacity to support Singapore ramp-up in 300 millimeter SOI and the capacity increase in 150 millimeter at Bernin 3 for POI products. This concludes our presentations today. I am sure you have plenty of questions. Let's jump straight into our Q&A.
Thank you very much. Thank you. If you would like to ask a question on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypads now, please. Please ensure your line is unmuted locally, and then you'll be introduced into the call. That is star one on your telephone keypads now, please. We do have some questions coming through already, and our first question comes from the line of David O'Connor from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Great. Good evening, or sorry, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Paul, maybe firstly on the EBITDA margin. You know, H2 implied below H1, yet you're raising the full year. Can you just talk around the margin headwinds that you're facing in the H2 of the fiscal year? Maybe if you can rank them as well, please. I have a follow-up on the SiC business.
I will probably let Léa give you a little bit more color on this.
Thank you, Paul. Yes, let's go back to the margin dynamic. In H2, we expect slight increase in gross profit versus H1. The operating leverage will offset the headwinds such as energy costs and bulk price. Part of this improvement will be related to non-EBITDA items such as better absorption of depreciation expenses and the share-based payments. On the other hand, the EBITDA in H2 will also be impacted by the level of R&D and SG&A expenses with a catch-up effect from H1 to H2. That's why, yes, you are right. We are expecting H2 EBITDA margin below H1 EBITDA margin.
That's helpful. Thank you, Léa. Maybe for my follow-up, Paul, seems like on the SmartSiC strategy, there's some of the building blocks are falling into place now. Just curious, you know, with no customers yet announced, why'd you buy NOVASiC versus just partnering with them? Just if you could also talk the last milestones that remain on your before SmartSiC is adopted. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. In fact, it is clear that the acquisitions of NOVASiC is strengthening our expertise in the wafering of silicon carbide. We are in the process, obviously, on the way to prepare our industrializations. It's a very unique and very important process block in our activity, and we have been working with NOVASiC for a long time now on this.
Basically, regarding the building blocks, as you can see, I mean, with including the Mersen, you know, strategic partnership that we have now in place, it is clear that the overall smart silicon carbide technology is clearly under our, and we own it, right? I mean, we can really develop at the speed we want. What is very true now is that we have basically multiple customers engaged in the evaluations across all regions. We have wafers running in manufacturing in their device manufacturing fabs. We have obviously qualifications evaluations plans ongoing.
Very helpful. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Just as a reminder, it is star one if you would like to ask a question. Our next question comes from the line of Sébastien from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hello everyone, and thanks for taking the question. Coming back to your SiC substrate sourcing strategy. Are you going to focus only on poly-SiC with Mersen for your sourcing? Or are you going also to work with other suppliers and notably on basic silicon carbide substrates? Also attached to that, could you remind us a little bit the key benefit of poly-SiC versus traditional SiC wafers in terms of performance, what is improving in terms of efficiency and so on? More on the business side, could you comment or elaborate a little bit on the trends on business in the start of the quarter and moving into the next fiscal year?
What kind of visibility do you have, and what should we expect in terms of organic growth development for the fiscal year 2023? Thank you.
Okay. Basically, the strategic partnership with Mersen on polysilicon carbide is not exclusive. Meaning that we also have the ability to work with other polysilicon carbide providers. We will focus on the product that we are bringing to market on silicon carbide, on polysilicon carbide. Why? Because it's really bringing differentiations at the device level and at the manufacturing level in terms of, you know, die size, I mean, die size, but also yield and also the overall reusability of the top silicon carbide. We see multiple at the device level advantages for polysilicon carbide.
At the system level, we continue to confirm basically the extensions of the value of silicon carbide as a substrate. We continue to get, due to the low resistivity of polysilicon carbide, more kilometers out of the same battery, in a way, right? That's basically the reason why we will focus on this technology only.
On the business, trends right now and moving into the next fiscal year, how do you see the business developing visibility?
On the business, I mean, as we told you during our Capital Markets Day, we were forecasting the first sales on silicon carbide at in Q4 FY 2023. Again, we are not talking about significant, but we are going to get into the market. Obviously, starting FY 2024, starting the ramp. That's the reason why we are absolutely, I mean, at the right confidence level to not only make the acquisitions and the partnership we are taking today, but also to continue to move ahead with our site selections and industrializations process.
In FY 2026, we continue to plan for high single-digit % of the EUR 2 billion that we have planned for during our CMD.
One last question, if I may, on silicon carbide. How do you see the addressable market, I don't know, 5, 10 years out for this kind of SiC substrates?
I mean, obviously there is still a lot of expectations on this market. Clearly, on the fiscal year 2026, fiscal year 2030 horizon, we are talking about several hundred million EUR market for Soitec. That's for sure.
Thank you. Thank you, Paul.
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Varun from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, Paul and Léa. This is Varun from J.P. Morgan. Firstly, you know, just on EBITDA margin, did you quantify the impact from favorable phasing of bulk silicon LTA to your first half margin? I just want to, you know, get some clarification on that. Then secondly, if you take the second half 2022 EBITDA margin as a baseline, and I know that you're not providing guidance for fiscal year 2023 just yet, but just taking 2H 2022 as a baseline, and given that you will likely start the construction of your new silicon carbide facility in fiscal year 2023, should we expect a margin dip in fiscal year 2023 compared to fiscal year 2022?
Just another point on the overall demand environment. There are some, you know, concerns that, you know, we may see a broad-based slowdown in the smartphone market. Just wanna hear from you, what are you hearing from your customers at this point, you know, in terms of their buying behavior, in terms of inventory of your products in the channel? Some clarification on that would be helpful. Finally, on the millimeter wave smartphone announcement today, is there FDSOI content in the commercialized device in line with what you had expected? Thank you.
Okay, Varun, lots of questions on your side.
I apologize for that, but I appreciate your answers.
Take them one by one. First on the profitability, let's go back with Léa.
Okay. The first question regarding profitability was regarding the drivers for H1 versus last year. Yes, we will not give this level of details regarding bulk part in the gross margin improvement. But it is a significant effect on the improvement between H1 2021 EBITDA margin and H1 2022. On the perspective for FY 2023, yes, as you said, it's too early to give a guidance. Yes, we are driving the company for this 34% to be a floor in the future. 34% EBITDA margin to be a floor in the future.
Thanks, Léa. Moving to Paul for the millimeter wave question.
Yeah, the smartphone trends maybe first. I mean, clearly we are very solid on our EUR 520 million smartphones and we see that clearly as part of solid numbers. In terms of millimeter wave, I mean, we are extremely pleased, by the way, to get this Pixel 6 smartphones on the shelf, including our FDSOI as part of the millimeter wave solutions. I mean, it is coming a little bit even earlier as we were expecting. This is great news. I mean, there is a report produced by Yole on this, and I just advise you to go and read it.
This is great. In terms of what we can see on this, I mean, this is a Samsung 28-nanometer FDSOI devices that you get into these phones. The first information we are getting is showing that the overall, I mean, mm² that we see on these phones is roughly in line with our expectations. Great news and very solid drive on this. Obviously, millimeter wave will be also RFSOI. As I said from the beginning, you will have two types of architectures in the phones, one with RFSOI, the other one with FDSOI in the future.
Regarding trends and inventory, I mean, we are monitoring and clearly there is no warning in the inventory. I mean, if we can ship more, we could sell more.
Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Léa. I appreciate your answers.
Thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of Didier from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. I've got a couple of questions. First, can you maybe just give us a sense of your assumption of roll-off wafer prices for the second half? You know, maybe, you know, the sort of delta versus the first half, so we sort of better understand one of the headwinds. The second bit, I just wondered, on your EBITDA margin guide for fiscal year, for the full fiscal year, would you say north of 35%? Presumably that's including the one-off gain in the H1 . Just wanted to clarify that. I've got a quick follow-up on silicon carbide. Thank you.
Just maybe to reiterate the messages on EBITDA margin, first with Léa on the dynamic and the headwinds we see for H2.
Yes. The headwinds we are seeing for H2 are mainly, as we explained, the bulk price as compared to H1, and the energy cost and the saving of our FX contracts. We are hedged for the full year, but our hedging contracts during H2 will be less favorable than the one during H1. We'll not go into the details of the bulk price, for sure. We anticipated, we know we'll have an increase of the bulk price for the second half. Maybe Paul, do you want to comment?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe just to add, I mean, this is clearly when you talk about and we talk about it already. I mean, we know that our ongoing supply chain in bulk silicon is in terms of pricing on our new contracts is going up. We also say that we have also increased our wafer pricing. You know, what it is right now, I mean, all our wafer pricing, new pricing will happen in the new contract, and this is also a phase-in of these contracts. In our H2, we have a phase-in on our bulk prices and also a phasing that is probably a little bit delayed compared to the phase-in of the bulk pricing to you know, accept.
Basically explain what Léa is saying. There is a, I will say, one-quarter discrepancy on all this, but this is what we have to pay for.
Okay. Thank you. Very clear. On EBITDA margin, does that include the one-off gain in the first half?
Is the one-off gain of what, sorry?
The full year margin guidance. I think you said 34%, potentially up to 35%, remembering taking into account what you reported for the H1 , which was a small one-off gain in there.
Yes.
Okay. On silicon carbide, I just wondered. I think you've addressed a lot of the points already, but maybe Paul, if you wanted to just qualify a little bit the nature of your engagement. You know, is it with tier one chip makers, or is it with automotive OEMs or tier ones? I'm thinking specifically about, you know, one of the leaders in power semiconductors that does not have internal silicon carbide substrate, you know, whether you've sort of had conversation with them and whether that could, you know, justify the current acquisitions you made.
Yeah. We are clearly with the innovations that we are going to bring to the market. You can think that we are talking to all tier ones around the world. We are also talking to car makers because clearly what we are interested in is to understand the car makers' roadmaps and the problem they are trying to fix. We want to stay tuned with car makers in terms of the objectives they have. We clearly work with all the tier one device makers to make sure that our specifications comply with their manufacturing and devices specifications. Clearly we are talking to the full ecosystems.
Thank you very much.
Didier, just to go back on the one-off item comment that you mentioned.
Did you refer to the reversal of the Singapore building? That was one of the effects we are mentioning.
Yeah.
No, it's not included in the EBITDA margin as this is depreciation, so non-cash item. It does not improve the EBITDA. That's neutral on EBITDA.
Okay, thanks.
Fantastic. Our next question comes from the line of Ken Rumph from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hello, everybody. Firstly, a question on the JDA with Mersen, just to try and understand the nature of that. It's basically a supply and technical cooperation agreement. Is there an anticipated kind of financial impact in terms of shared commitments on research or development? I'm just trying to understand exactly what it is beyond kind of cooperating on supply of polysilicon, poly-SiC. Second couple of questions. One for Léa, I guess is just the shape of FX hedging going forward into next year, how far it's gone and at what kind of level. And kind of a related question, but I guess more for Paul on the kind of length and general trend in. But crucially the kind of extent of your long-term agreements on bulk supply.
What's the kind of runway that we have forward and we understand the trend obviously in prices. Thanks.
Okay. On the Mersen questions first, I mean, this is a strategic JDA to develop a new range of polysilicon carbide substrates for the EV market. Basically, I mean, we are developing together this raw polysilicon material that Mersen will sell to us. As you know, I mean, the impact of this material is very low resistivity for more efficient components. It will improve our 200 millimeter scalability as well in terms of technology and cost of ownership perspective. Polysilicon carbide is obviously compatible with SmartCut technology and which is critical, but also customer spec.
Polysilicon carbide substrates will enable higher energy efficiency, basically fostering the development of more energy efficient electric vehicles. We have that here, a joint development where at the end, Mersen is selling raw materials that we will be polishing and wafering internally at Soitec. It's obviously a very important partnership, but as you understand, we have also the right to buy polysilicon carbide too from others.
Okay.
The next question was regarding our hedging contract. For FY 2022, we are fully hedged at a rate around 1.20. For FY 2023, we are partially hedged.
Okay.
The last question regarding bulk supply, LTAs. The bulk supply LTA, I mean, we are basically ranging between 2-4 years, LTAs, in terms of, well, what we are closing in with our suppliers. 2-4 years is the range that we are today.
Okay, thank you.
Just as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, it is star one on your telephone keypads now, please. We do have a question on the line from Robert Sanders from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good morning. I just had two questions. The first one on silicon carbide. It you know looks like you have two decent lead customers on the semiconductor side now. I was just wondering when the kind of go, no-go was from their point of view. Or to put it another way, I assume they're doing a dual track process, but you know, obviously they will, hopefully for you guys, gonna move to a sort of single track. I was just wondering when that moment is, you think, when they will fully commit to go with you guys. And I have a follow-up. Thanks.
I mean, as I said, Rob, I mean, we are introducing a technology that is compatible with the existing platform and that our customers around the world are working on. This is a benefit for Soitec because obviously our technology and product introductions will come smoothly and as we grow our capability and capacity, I mean, obviously customers will engage at the speed of this capacity that we will build for sure. I don't see it like this. I don't see it as a go, no-go. I see it as a progressive and very solid adoptions in the next three years.
Got it. Just on the GlobalFoundries side, obviously they've done their IPO. They've got a lot of investor interest, and obviously that's firmed up their CapEx plans. I was just wondering, has that affected that whole process, and the fact that they now can access the public markets? Do you think that's gonna affect your prospects with your largest customer?
Yeah, no change. I mean, we clearly have a very strong visibility on what our customers are doing over the next two to three years. Obviously, I mean, we are extremely pleased to see a good start of GlobalFoundries in this, you know, open markets. Clearly, you can read from what they said yesterday that they are very optimistic and we are too. What is important for us is that all the foundries around the world continue to increase their capacity as we know that this is also part of the limiting factors for, you know, the entire industry. We are in sync with GlobalFoundries as we are with all the other one.
Obviously, what GlobalFoundries is reporting is clearly a very positive message.
Thanks a lot.
Okay, we have no further questions in the queue, so I'll hand you back over to the speakers.
Okay, thank you very much, everyone. Thank you for attending this call today. We'll be on the road today with a few of you, and we'll be happy to take your questions. Thank you very much. Next event in next-generation. Thank you all, and we hope to talk to you very soon. For some of you, we may see you during the day.
Thank you very much for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your handsets. Hosts, please stay on the line.