Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call on the Q2 2024 results. I'm Moritz, the call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in the listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Jürgen Rebel, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning. This is Jürgen speaking. I would like to welcome you to our Q2 2024 earnings call for investors and analysts. With me are Aldo Kamper, CEO, and Rainer Irle, CFO. Aldo will comment on business and strategy. Rainer will comment on financials. After our introductory remarks, we're happy to answer your questions. Aldo and Rainer will refer to the earnings call presentation that you find on our website. For further information, we also provide a full slide deck that you can find on the website as well. Aldo, please share with us your thoughts on Q2 business and strategy development.
Thank you, Jürgen, and good morning to everyone from my side as well. We are happy with our solid results in the Q2 in an environment in which uncertainties are increasing. Let us take a look at slide 2. Q2 group revenues decreased slightly as guided, quarter-over-quarter, and came in at EUR 890 million, a EUR 28 million seasonal decline compared to the Q1. We landed at a midpoint of our guided range. The seasonality is entirely due to the Lamps & Systems business, as the semiconductor business actually upped 3% quarter-over-quarter. We'll come to details later. Comparing year-over-year on a like-for-like basis, we stood at EUR 839 million, excluding divestment in the Lamps & Systems segment. The currency impact stands at around EUR 2 million. Like for like, and on a constant currency basis, our revenue therefore slightly decreased by 3% year-over-year.
Despite seasonally lower revenues, we improved our profitability. Adjusted EBITDA came in at 16.5%, or EUR 135 million, after EUR 124 million in the Q1. Adjusted EBITDA landed almost at the top end of our guided range. That is 9% higher than in the Q1. We see the effect of better factory loading and materializing structural savings from our Re-establish the Base program. On top, some tailwind from IPCEI funding catch-ups also helped. On the other hand, within that number, there's also a seasonal reduction from Lamps & Systems. For comparison, you see a chart of adjusted EBIT on the right-hand side. The adjusted EBIT margin came in at 6.8%, after 5.2% in the Q1. In absolute terms, adjusted EBIT stood EUR 12 million higher than in Q1, namely at EUR 56 million, an increase of 28%. Let's now look at the financial performance of the business segments.
The Lamps & Systems segment is shown on page number 3. The business continued to perform well in line with expected seasonality. Revenues stood at EUR 233 million, resulting in a 17% quarter-over-quarter seasonal decline. As I explained in previous calls, Q4 and Q1 are always the strong quarters in the year, as most LEMSA replacements happen during wintertime in the US and Europe. The Q2 is always the softest quarter in the yearly aftermarket business cycle. We expect aftermarket sales to pick up again in September. The specialty LEMSA business for industry and entertainment applications, however, remained at a low level of around EUR 40 million. There are still high inventories, especially at our semi-equipment customers. The adjusted EBITDA margin for the segment stood at 17.6%, or EUR 39 million in absolute terms. This compares to 22.5% in the Q1, or EUR 60 million.
Besides the decline from seasonality, we had some positive one-time inventory revaluation in Q1, which exaggerates a bit the quarter-over-quarter contraction. Turning our attention to the semiconductor segment now on slide 4. You find the optosemiconductor business, or OS in brief, on the left-hand side. This is our semiconductor business with emitters, that is, LEDs and lasers. Revenues improved to EUR 372 million, driven by automotive and some application industrial, such as horticulture and professional lighting. This compares to EUR 345 million in the Q1, an 8% quarter-over-quarter increase. Adjusted EBITDA increased by EUR 17 million to EUR 84 million. This makes an adjusted EBITDA margin of around 23%, after 19% in the Q1. You see the effect of higher loading here. However, high research and development expenses still weigh on profitability until we have fully adjusted the micro-LED strategy along the lines outlined last time.
IPCEI funding catch-up impact also gave some tailwinds. On the right-hand side, you see the financial performance of our semiconductor segment, CMOS Sensors and ASICs, or CSA in short. Revenues declined quarter-over-quarter by EUR 9 million and stood at EUR 224 million compared to EUR 233 million in the Q1. While some additional business stabilized on a low level and sensor Android-based smartphones were in high demand, some legacy sockets for consumer handheld devices continued their ramp down, leading to the quarter-over-quarter reduction. Adjusted EBITDA for CSA more than quadrupled to EUR 21 million, or 9% adjusted EBITDA margin. While the utilization charges from weak industrial medical business are still high, you also see the structural savings from our Re-establish the Base program taking gradual effect, showing here that we're on the right track.
Let us switch to slide number 5, looking at the dynamics in the end markets in detail. On the very left, you see the revenues of both semiconductor segments combined for comparison purposes. Year-over-year, revenues reduced slightly by 1%, which is purely a consequence of the non-core portfolio, which still blurs the numbers and is in some parts declining due to ramp-downs of some legacy consumer designs. Automotive revenues came in still strong, despite increasing clouds on the horizon, as you hear from all corners of the industry now. Our content for vehicle expansion continues, and we could again show structural growth, especially in our emitter business, which ended up with a 6% year-over-year growth. Overall, industrial and markets remain weak for the time being. However, in detail, the picture is more diverse. On the positive, professional lighting saw relatively solid demand.
Horticulture grew nicely based on design wins. Having the best product in the market always helps. On top, our new blue laser diode for material treatment sold even better than planned. On the negative side, we see no end yet to the inventory correction when it comes to capital goods and medical markets. Likewise, the mass market in Europe does not seem to rebound. Mass markets in China and the US are doing, relatively speaking, fine in contrast. But overall, the mood in the industrial market is pretty muted. Consumer business continues to improve compared to a year ago when it comes to sensor products for Android smartphones. We had a very strong quarter here. We are benefiting from our leading market position in spectral sensing. However, the overall year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter decline is a result of legacy designs gradually approaching the end of their life cycle.
Switching now to slide 6. In line with our solid operational performance in the Q2, we also continue to be very successful in securing new business to support our mid- to long-term structural growth ambitions. First, we need to speak again about our blockbuster product, EVIYOS. That 25,000-pixel forward lighting solution is a feature headlamp hardly anyone wants to miss, and consequently, more than EUR 100 million of lifetime value in terms of new wins were added. We will look at EVIYOS in some more detail on the next slide. Second, our high-precision temperature and position sensing products can convince more and more customers, and we can mention EUR 50 million of design wins, showing again that our content for vehicle expansion is broad-based. Third, while suffering from inventory corrections, our differentiated technology for sensor interfaces in the industrial space is helping customers designing better products.
We could win designs of accumulated EUR 100 million during the quarter. The key win relates to an HVAC application worth more than half of that cumulated number. For professional lighting, the segment was one of the few areas in the industry that did well. We could also win significant new business worth more than EUR 100 million over a lifetime. Last but not least, our leading position at ambient light sensing and proximity sensing in the Android spacing is continuously being reinforced. We saw around EUR 100 million in Q2. Our sensor technology makes photos taken by smartphones simply better, more natural, as confirmed again by the latest DXO ranking. We feature on almost every premium smartphone in the market. I would like to share a few more details about the ramp of our market-leading EVIYOS forward lighting solution. We are now on slide number seven.
As publicly known, the first adopter was the Volkswagen brand with its two models, Touareg and the Tiguan. In 2024, we are now in full ramp with further car models. We're very happy that EVIYOS ramps both in Europe and in China. In China, leading EVs will be equipped with EVIYOS. As we go along, more and more models will ramp, being a key element of our structural growth path in automotive. On the right-hand side, you see the latest market estimate for adaptive matrix LED headlights. Do not be confused by the terms mini and micro LED, as they basically designate the path towards smaller pixel dimensions. However, it is not to be confused with the super small pixel that we had been pursuing with our Cornerstone project for novel displays. Of course, the smaller the pixel gets, the trickier the physical effects are.
For this, we decided to redeploy some of our Micro LED resources to the high-pixelated automotive headlamp development. Looking at the market forecast by TrendForce, you can see why we believe this is a beneficial investment. The market for advanced high-pixelated LED solutions is expected to grow to EUR 1 billion by 2028. And we have the best starting position with having won the majority of existing designs. Again, this is exemplified by more than EUR 450 million of design wins. We believe this is just the beginning, and for this, we redeployed the resources from the previous Micro LED display project. Let us dwell a little longer in the automotive segment, turning to slide 8 here. I reported about our design win traction with our laser diodes and LiDAR modules not long ago.
It's another example of our content for vehicle expansion across the board when it comes to optoelectronics in cars. It's important to be with the leaders in emerging technologies. For this, we are very proud of being recognized by RoboSense, a leading Chinese tier one in the LiDAR space, as one of the key partners. RoboSense LiDAR solutions feature already in 25 vehicles on the road, and their design win tally stands at 65 models. In a few years, the laser diode market for automotive LiDAR should grow above EUR 100 million annually. Let us switch now to slide number 9. Last year, we could record a total design win volume of more than EUR 5 billion lifetime value. We talked about this early February when announcing the V2023 figure. We are on track to repeat this outstanding achievement.
With a strong acceleration in the Q2, our year-to-date design wins for the first half of 2024 stand at around EUR 2.5 billion. Design wins are across the board, but by nature, with an overweight to automotive. This design-win wave clearly underpins our future growth ambitions. So far, we have been talking about improving the top line. Now, let us switch to the view towards the bottom line, and now on slide 10. Exactly a year ago, we announced our strategic efficiency program, Re-establish the Base. We said that most of our product lines are structurally healthy, but the overall performance is hampered by non-core businesses primarily in some consumer applications. We also said that we target structural run rate savings of about EUR 75 million by the end of 2024 and of around EUR 150 million at the end of 2025.
Today, one year later, I'm glad to report that we're fully on track with the program when it comes to the realization of those savings. To date, we have already realized about EUR 60 million structural cost savings. The fall through into results is also evident by the strongly improving EBITDA in the business unit CSA. In terms of non-core portfolio cleanup, we have addressed the most burning issues, that is, the passive optical components and the CMOS image sensor business. As announced, the key assets of the passive optical component business are being sold to Focuslight for about EUR 45 million in cash. We expect the deal to close in the Q3. As communicated three months ago, we are restructuring the CMOS image sensor business to a profitable core in primarily medical applications. Key adjustments of the structure, especially in the U.S., are already implemented.
The remaining EUR 200 million or so for non-core businesses are being dealt with in the coming quarters. Various solutions for the promised exit are on the table, and we're assessing which option will be the best. It will be the best given the various boundary conditions we have. For clarity, this means that our starting base for our midterm operating growth model in 2023 is around EUR 3.15 billion. This is the level we measure ourselves against when it comes to the growth of the core business. As we mentioned regularly, our midterm target operating model has three elements for improving profitability towards the target level. First, we establish the base, which we just talked about. Second, the ramp of new products and design wins. We've talked about the example of EVIYOS as a key element earlier.
And third, overall market normalization or market recovery, if you think of industrial and medical end markets, or the overall impact of car units being built. Let me also comment on the adjustment of our micro-LED strategy that we laid out three months ago. With regards to development activities, we have terminated no longer needed contract workers. We've also strengthened the core automotive development in high-pixelated forward lighting by the transfer of key employees. The reduction of factory personnel has started as well. With regards to the 8-inch factory, we had said that this is a process that will take some time, despite the significant interest we had immediately received. The process has started. The interested parties will be handing in their bids, and we are on our anticipated timeline.
With this overview, I now hand over to Rainer to provide you with some more details on liquidity, cash flow, and financials in general.
Yeah, thank you, Aldo. Welcome, everybody. We are on page 11. Operating cash flow came in again at EUR 55 million, as you can see in the chart on the left. Just as a reminder, in line with the market practice, net interest payments are now included in the definition of operating cash flow, and thus also in free cash flow. The payment of EUR 50 million of interest due got pushed into the Q2 as the due date fell on a bank holiday end of March. As such, Q1 operating cash flow was higher and Q2 lower than according to the underlying business. The next chart to the right shows cash flows related to CapEx.
It stood at minus EUR 176 million, around EUR 90 million lower than a year ago. Now, EUR 176 also includes the payment for a lot of construction bills that we received still late last year, with long payment terms that we pay now. It is obviously still elevated compared to our 10% CapEx to sales target, as it contains a meaningful amount of micro-LED related equipment or construction. It was not always possible to cancel those machines, but we did renegotiate successfully in many instances, which brings our total transformation cost down to the current estimate of EUR 680 million, a bit lower than the EUR 700 million we said before, including the significant impairments. Inflows from divestments were negligible in Q2.
The next meaningful inflow will be from the sale of assets of the passive optical components business to Focuslight. We expect the transaction to close in the Q3. As a result, free cash flow, including the interest payments, came in with minus EUR 190 million, making it the worst quarter of the year. It will become significantly better in the second half with lower CapEx and higher operating cash flow from higher revenues.
Now, coming to slide 12, we had EUR 900 million cash on hand at the end of Q2, a reduction by EUR 176 million compared to the end of March. In Q2, we paid the dividend to the minority investors of OSRAM Licht AG , and as I said, there was still a carryover effect from last year. We also paid back EUR 100 million maturing bilateral loan at the end of June, while drawing another one to replace it.
We expect liquidity to rather go up than down in the second half of the year. Bilateral bank facilities, including promissory notes, amount to EUR 346 million, a slight reduction compared to the end of March. Of those, we have already paid back the maturing promissory notes of EUR 51 million in early July. I had indicated that when we spoke last time. There are no changes in the maturity profile relating to the 2025 or 2027 converts, nor to the 2029 senior unsecured notes. The sale-and-leaseback in Malaysia stood at EUR 401 million. That's always a bit of a quarter-over-quarter increase from the quarterly accrual of the catch-up interest payment at maturity.
Technically, according to IFRS, it's not debt, y ou would agree with us that we consider it as debt internally. We are working on the exit of the sale-and-leaseback in close alignment with the investors for transferring it to the new lessee as part of the divestment.
A process that is well on track but takes some time, as Aldo explained. That would take away the EUR 400 million debt-like liabilities, strengthening our balance sheet and reduced leverage. It would also take away the EUR 35 million interest expense each year. For completeness, the outstanding minority put options amount to EUR 605 million of 14% of shares outstanding. In Q2, put options worth around EUR 5 million executed. We have the revolving credit facility of EUR 800 million, which is in principle reserved for the unlikely event of a more mobile kind of exercise of the minority options. We believe that scenario is unlikely, but it's still kind of the headroom in the revolver is EUR 200 million on top of that. And also, we have another EUR 106 million undrawn bilateral bank facility.
In summary, we continue to stand with a strong available liquidity of EUR 1.8 billion at the end of the Q2. On the right, you find the familiar maturity table of our outstanding debt. And now on page 13, looking at gross profit and OpEx. Adjusted gross profit came in at EUR 243 million in the Q2, EUR 2 million higher than in Q1. Adjusted gross margin stood at almost 30%, more than 1.5% higher than in Q1. The cost improvements from Re-establish the Base, particularly in the business units, are clearly visible. The adjusted R&D expenses decreased by 12% quarter-over-quarter to EUR 100 million from EUR 140 million in Q1. Now, there is a catch-up payment of IPSI funding in there that is positive, but also with the end of that micro-LED project, the capitalization of R&D has come down, which is kind of negative.
Adjusted SG&A expenses came in essentially flat at EUR 94 million in the Q2. Now, on page 14, the net financing result in the Q2 stood at minus EUR 55 million compared to minus EUR 57 million in Q1. No material changes here. Adjusted net result came in at minus EUR 1 million and backed by only EUR 2 million tax expenses. For the entire year 2024, you can assume around EUR 50 million net tax expenses for modeling purposes. As such, you need to see the first and Q2 together adding to around EUR 23 million tax expenses. Consequently, the adjusted diluted earnings per share came in at EUR 0, significantly above the minus EUR 4 in the last quarter. The clean IFRS reported net result was minus EUR 41 million in Q2, resulting in minus EUR 4 per share. And now, let's take a look at page 15.
Q3, we expect the beginning of the seasonal rebound in the auto lens aftermarket business. In semiconductors, we expect demand for automotive products to weaken in line with the reduced car unit forecast by IHS. However, we will see a good revenue contribution from ramping new sensor products for smartphone applications. We also see an uptick in the horticulture business. The inventory corrections in some industrial and medical markets will continue. In summary, the revenues are expected to come in between EUR 830 and EUR 930 million. On the back of stronger sales and progressing implementation of our Re-establish the Base program, we expect the adjusted EBITDA to improve quite a bit, coming in between 17% and 20% in the Q3. Thereby, we assume a year-to-year stock exchange rate of 110.
Looking at the remainder of 2024 as a whole, the targeted EUR 75 million run rate savings from Re-establish the Base are on track. When it comes to CapEx for the full year, the guidance was EUR 450 million last quarter, and that included the carryover effect and so on. But we might end up a bit higher at EUR 500 to 550 million, as we had included some capital grants, some significant capital grants to come in end of this year, and they might slip into next year, which is just a timing effect. And then if it comes in higher this year, then obviously the EUR 25 CapEx would be lower by that same amount.
With free cash flow now standing at minus EUR 179 million in the first six months, it will be certainly much stronger in the second half if we continue to target positive free cash flow, excluding interest payments this year. And with that outlook and the summary, I would hand back to Aldo.
Thank you, Rainer. Switching now to slide 16, we'll summarize today's key takeaways. We delivered solid revenues in an increasingly difficult environment in the Q2. Profitability came in at the upper end of the guided range. The structural growth in automotive semiconductors continued with 6% year-over-year. We continued to win significant new business in our core semi business. Year-to-date is in a EUR 2.5 billion lifetime value for new business. Implementation of Re-establish the Base is fully on track for delivering this year's and next year's targeted savings. The key elements of the non-core portfolio addressed.
Restructuring of the Micro LED activities has started. Key resources have been transferred to the automotive core development in high-pixelated forward lighting that has a very promising prospect. The process for finding a new lessee for the 8-inch factory is on track. Overall, we now look at Q3 with improving revenue and improving profitability despite a more and more difficult market environment. This concludes our introductory remarks, and we are now happy to take your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. [Operator's Instructions] . The first question comes from Sébastien Sztabowicz from Kepler Cheuvreux . Please go ahead.
Hello everyone, and thanks for taking my question. The first one is on the industrial market. Could you please comment a little bit on the level of inventory that you are seeing right now on the specific market? And when do you believe this inventory correction could be completed? And the second one is that your comment on the automotive market that is currently weakening, is it a matter of some inventory build in the market, or is it just due to weaker-than-expected global car production volume? And if there is some inventory building up, where is it really happening right now? Thank you.
Yeah, Sebastian, happy to take your questions. On the industrial markets, A t least on the sensor side, we continue to see low demand. We had hoped that our customers would work through their inventories that were still high, that were very high starting this year in the aftermath of the semiconductor shortages that they faced, and they wanted to be well prepared to avoid that for the future. They had a lot of NCRA type of orders that we then also delivered on late last year. We were hoping that they would work through that inventory in the first two quarters or so. They are, but unfortunately at a very slow pace. So they still have significant inventories on their side, and it will take still a number of quarters, it's our belief, before that is then digested.
And then we will start to see real demand again. At the moment, it is quite minimal. On the LED side, industrial markets are a bit better. Like I outlined, also both professional lighting as well as horticulture lighting were actually doing quite well in the Q2. And also, we look at horty, especially also getting stronger in the Q3. That's the normal seasonal pattern. And given the strength of our product portfolio here, we are also benefiting from the market rebound in horty. On the auto side, it is really about the overall weakening of the car production. Still, we look at inventory levels as being healthy and in that sense, not worrisome. But yeah, we just see that our customers are getting more cautious pretty much across the board. And yeah, we have to take that into account now into our forecast.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And the next question comes from Janardan Menon from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking the question, and congratulations on a good set of results. My first question is also on automotive. Yes, all your peers have also flagged the weakness in automotive into the second half of the year. But for the last 12 months or so, you have been talking about some strong design wins ramping in automotive in the second half of the year alongside also the consumer design win. But it appears that the consumer design win is coming through quite nicely and ramping up your revenues quite nicely into the Q3. But the automotive doesn't seem to be coming through.
Is it because the weakness is more than compensating for those ramps, or is there any delay in those ramps? Any color on? Also trying to really get a feel for how your revenues will progress into Q4. I know you don't want to give any guidance for Q4 at this stage, but just qualitatively, if auto stays weak on the production side into Q4, is there some upside from new designs ramping into Q4 as well? I'm also trying to get at. Thanks.
T he new design wins ramping helps. And overall, that is still happening. We do see at some of our customers that are kind of reshuffling their portfolio at the moment between EV and non-EV, especially in Europe. And there are some disturbances, if you will, out of that. But overall, given the content of vehicle improvements that we continue to see, that will kind of dampen the impact.
Of course. W e are not immune to lower vehicle builds, but you will see a lessened impact because we have a compensating effect in the improved content of the vehicle. So before, we were hoping that fairly stable builds following the second half would then lead to rising revenues in the automotive segment, given that content of vehicle improvement. But now, given the weakness in the second half, that will be probably more flattish.
Understood. And then on the cost reduction, you seem to be making very good progress there, and you're already at EUR 60 million out of the sort of targeted EUR 75 million run rate. Does that mean that there could be some upside over there? Could you continue to see the sort of first half run rate into the second half and exceed that EUR 75 million?
W hat it is signaling is that we're making good progress, and I would say that perhaps the speed of implementation is higher than anticipated. I would at the moment still say that overall goal of 150 is still the one that we're shooting for. But yeah, we continue to push hard to make these things happen as quickly as possible.
Understood. Thanks.
You're welcome.
T he next question comes from Robert Sanders from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, and thanks for taking my question. I was just interested in asking about pricing as you look into next year. The pricing, particularly in automotive, has been quite benign for the last three years owing to the chip shortage. I was j ust interested to know if you saw any pressure from Tier 1s and OEMs to squeeze pricing into next year, given that they're now facing quite severe margin pressure? Thanks.
Obviously, our car makers and Tier 1s are seeing that pressure themselves. It's a competitive space out there, especially on the EV-side in China. There's a real price war going on. And also globally, as the overall demand is weakening, of course, the car makers are also responding with more attractive pricing to the end customer. And yes, they are trying to push that on to the supply base as well. You have to kind of keep in mind, though, that we didn't abuse the price increase spiral of the last years that some of the other semi makers perhaps have gone through.
So in that sense, also the expectation of us now giving prices is also much lower. We've been very reasonable and very logical in our price management over the last years. And with that backdrop, we, of course, respond adequately to the price pressure, but it is still in a reasonable range. But yeah, that being said, pricing does have a bit more pressure now. O verall, a lot of the input materials are back to normal, and people do expect, like in normal times, that semiconductors get better and cheaper every year. And that we are basically now returning to the long-term trend again. And as long as we accompany that also with progress on the cost side, also with mixed improvements, then we can usually handle that price pressure. But yes, it is increasing a bit versus where we were the last years, no question.
Just a question for Rainer. Could you just talk about your gross margin impact from underutilization? W hat would it have been your gross margin if you'd had 100% utilization, and what is it now, your utilization? Thanks.
Yeah, Rob. I 'm sure we would both not assume that you can ever run a company of our size with 100% utilization, right? But the underutilization costs are in that way hundreds of millions EUR. And the upside that you have when you improve the utilization are significant. On the other hand, obviously, it's also very important to kind of keep those costs under control so that kind of in a weaker and times of a bit weaker market, it doesn't hurt you too much. But if the utilization improves, there's a very significant upside in the market, certainly.
W hat utilization do you assume in your 15% plan, just so I understand?
Thanks. Yeah, no, look, there's certainly when in the kind of in the target model, there is an improved utilization, and that is both from additional design wins are coming and where we have capacity for, but it is also from insourcing of certain manufacturing that's currently outsourced.
Got it. Thanks a lot.
And the next question comes from Sandeep Deshpande from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
T hank you for letting me on. My question is, clearly, you've got strong design wins in the consumer space in the second half of the year, which is helping the revenue ramp up into the second half of the year. A t the midpoint, it's about EUR 60 million that you're seeing an improvement. Is this all mostly driven by the consumer side with autos being soft and industrial being soft? That's my first question. And my second question is regarding your facilities in Malaysia. Where are you at this point in terms of resolution on those facilities at the Micro-LED facility in Malaysia, and what are the plans there? Thank you.
I'll perhaps take the second question first. As we said, we are in the process of selling that facility or finding a new LSE for the sale and lease back contract, wherever you want to look at that. We've got good interest in the fab. It is geopolitically still an attractive place to go for a lot of other semi players. And we're having good discussions and now a quite broad process that we're going through to optimize the value of the asset in this sales process.
So it will take a bit of time, but we continue to be confident that we'll find a good solution here that gives us good value for the investment that we've made and that we, unfortunately, don't need anymore. On the overall upswing in the second half year, yes, you're right. On the one hand, the consumer ramp has a meaningful impact, but it is not only that. It's about, I would say, half or so is out of that, and the other half will come out of both the semi business, like horti, for example, getting strong in the Q3, but also the Lamps & Systems segment also gets usually already a slight uptick in the Q3. September is the load-in month for the lighting season. So it will be a combination of things that help us in the Q3 get better.
Just quick follow-up to that first one. Is there any potential that this equipment that you're being forced to take, which you cannot cancel, has any other home that you can sell this equipment into?
T hat depends a bit on who is buying the factory. And of course, we are also having the excess equipment on sale. And we are hoping that we either can motivate the buyer of the facility to take some of that, or we'll also look for other homes outside of that. But of course, it's also an active process to try to make best use of those equipments. A few of them we've taken ourselves and are using to kind of get to productivity gains quicker by using the latest and greatest in our other facilities. W herever that is not possible or not meaningful, we, of course, try to monetize it differently.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
[Operator's Instructions] . The next question comes from Jürgen Wagner from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. On China, where you have been historically very strong, how do you see the competitive environment currently evolving as we read a lot about local sourcing in China? Thank you.
Hi, Jürgen. T hat's definitely a topic. Fortunately, we have been building our relationships here now since decades, and they go very deep. That is very helpful. Secondly, it is still about innovation. A lot of the car makers in China want to showcase that they're really up to snuff and are using the latest and greatest.
O n the latest and greatest, it is not the Chinese that we're competing with. It is the usual one or two Western companies that have, if at all, a similar product. So that does protect us on the innovation side, and that's, of course, where we keep pushing very hard. On the more established products, yes, people are looking at alternatives, but it is not that different from the kind of pressure that we have had over the last decades from other players in other markets. We had the Taiwanese for a while really pushing hard with the Koreans, pushing really hard for some time. And the automotive space still is a bit resilient on that because it's really about the quality levels. It's about long-term availability. It's more than just the price and the current performance of the product. And we continue to see that people value that.
It is a bit of a similar exercise we're seeing right now than in earlier times where people tried alternatives for some smaller programs, oftentimes are disappointed with the performance, oftentimes are disappointed that, for example, also changes are made to the product without being informed, things like that, and then they tend to come back. So yes, we see the pressure is there, and people are, of course, our customers are also looking at alternatives. G iven the specifics of the automotive market, we have a fair chance of defending our position there.
Okay, that's clear. Thank you.
You're welcome.
Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Jürgen Rebel for any closing remarks.
T hanks, everyone, for joining our Q2 2024 call. With that, we'd like to conclude today's session. For any further information, please refer to our website. We have further material examples on the full investor relations deck, and you can reach out to us anytime. Thanks a lot, and have a good summer break. Goodbye.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.