Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen, no matter where you are. Welcome to WIN Semi's Results Webcast Conference for the first quarter of 2024. My name is Joe Tseng, spokesman and associate vice president of finance in WIN Semi. Joining me today on today's call is Steve Chen, the general manager of corporate administration. Today's call is organized into three sections. First of all, Steve will comment on the company's results for Q1 and provide brief guidance for Q2. Secondly, I will go through the financials in detail. After that, we will open to the floor for Q&A. Please freely submit your question in the input box on the webcast window throughout the conference. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the safe harbor notice on page one of the presentation slides. Please note that these presentations contain forward-looking statements.
These statements are based on our current expectations. The actual results may differ materially from our expectations, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements going forward. Now, let me hand over the call to Mr. Steve Chen, the General Manager of WIN Semi.
Thank you, Joe. Welcome, everyone. In the first quarter of 2024, as expected, we entered the traditional off-season. First quarter consolidated revenue was TWD 4.4 billion, down 8.7% quarter-on-quarter but up 55% year-on-year, slightly ahead of our previous expectation. Due to a decline in utilization rate from 60% in the previous quarter to 55% and a less favorable product mix, coupled with the impact from the stock price volatility of listed Chinese customer held by our consolidated subsidiary, our gross margin decreased from 29.4% in the previous quarter to 22.4%, and operating margin also decreased from 13.1% in the previous quarter to 4.1%. Net profit attributable to the parent company for the first quarter was TWD 407 million, with an EPS of TWD 0.96.
Looking at the revenue change for each product in the first quarter, Wi-Fi delivered the highest growth after inventory has been depleted in the end market, making the first return to positive growth since the second quarter of last year. Cellular continued its momentum from the second half of last year, with revenue stayed at the similar level to the previous quarter. Both Wi-Fi and Cellular achieved above-seasonality performance in the off-season. For Infrastructure, revenue has consistently been within a narrow range, but the revenue from the first quarter was slightly lower than the previous quarter. That is, the Optical experienced the most significant revenue decline in the quarter. This was mainly due to the peak season of the 3D Sensing end product has passed, together with the additional new supplier by the end customer this year.
The smartphone market has been undergoing a period of the inventory adjustment for the past year and a half. The supply chain also faced price competition. According to a recent forecast by the research firm Counterpoint Research, the global smartphone shipment growth for the full year of 2024 is expected to be 3%, with annual shipments returning to 1.2 billion units. The firm also believes that the segment with the highest growth rate will be the premium smartphone segment, with the projected annual growth rate of 17%. Premium smartphones have always emphasized innovation, quality, and performance, in contrast to the mid-range and low-end smartphones that typically prioritize price at the expense of the performance. WIN Semi has consistently held a high market share in the premium smartphone market.
This is because we invest heavily in R&D research yearly and yearly to provide our customers with the most advanced and high-performance foundry technology and service, assisting them to enter the premium market. Our strategy and business model was focused on providing customers with the higher value added, and we dedicate to seeing the return of this trend, which may benefit our further revenue and profits. Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2024, driven by the demand of smartphone and Wi-Fi, we expect revenue to grow by low teens quarter- on- quarter and a gross margin at around a mid-20 levels. I will return the call back to Joe. Thank you.
Okay. It's our pleasure to present our financial results for the first quarter of 2024. Please refer to our presentation slides and remember to read over the safe harbor notice. We're starting from the revenue and the margin trend. Q1 2024, the revenue was TWD 4.4 billion. QoQ was down 8.7%, but the YOY was up 55%. The Q1 gross margin was 22.4%, which is QoQ down about 7 percentage points. The reason, due to a couple of factors. First of all, the capacity utilization was declined in Q1 compared to last quarter. Also, the less favorable product mix in Q1, also the impact from the stock price volatility of listed Chinese customer held by our consolidated subsidiary. For this item, there is an erosion for gross margin about 2.4 percentage points.
So therefore, the gross margin, if we exclude this item, then the gross margin should go up to 24.8%. Therefore, the operating margin becomes 4.1%, which is the QoQ was also going down for 9 percentage points. Please flip to the next page for earnings trend. For our Q1 2024, driven by the non-operating profit, which is recognized from the redemption of the remaining ECB, so the net profit attributable to the parent company was TWD 407 million when compared to TWD 385 million in the last quarter. EPS for Q1 becomes TWD 0.96 when compared to TWD 0.91 in Q4 of 2023. Please flip to the next page. We can discuss about product mix. Well, in the page earlier, we have mentioned that in Q1, we have less favorable product mix. You can see that in our product mix for Q1.
The cellular, it's between 45%-50% of the total revenue. And the Wi-Fi, it's between 10%-15%. And for the QoQ basis, actually, the cellular revenue for Q1, it's very close to last quarter, and it's kind of flatish. But the Wi-Fi revenue, it's an increase of almost 20% compared to last Q4. And you can say that it's better than seasonality for cellular and the Wi-Fi. And for the infrastructure, normally up and down within a small range, I mean, revenue-wise. And for this quarter, also the same range between 20%-25% for the total revenue. However, the optical business is significantly lower than last quarter, declined more than 30% for revenue.
Well, I think Steve has mentioned that that's because the peak season for 3D Sensing end product has passed and also the additional new supplier by the end customer for this year in this supply chain. So this is the change in the status for the product mix in Q1. Next page, talk about the guidance for Q2. I think Steve has mentioned it, and I'm going to repeat again. We expect Q2 2024 revenue to increase about low teens QoQ and also expect Q2 2024, the gross margin to be around the level of the mid-20s. Okay? We can go through the financial statement quickly. First of all, the income statement for Q1. Before I begin, I would like to remind everybody this is on an unaudited basis and the actual results based on the CPA's report. The Q1's net revenue was about TWD 4,442 million.
QoQ was down about 9%, but YOY was up 55%. The gross profit was TWD 995 million, and the gross margin for Q1 was 22.4%. The operating expense was TWD 811 million, and the operating expense ratio equivalent to 18%. The operating income was TWD 184 million. The OP margin is about 4.1%. There is a non-operating income net about TWD 125 million. Therefore, the income before the income tax becomes TWD 309 million. And because of income tax expense was TWD 42 million, so therefore, the net income was TWD 267. The net margin was 6%. The net profit attributable to the parent company is TWD 407 million. Therefore, the EPS becomes TWD 0.96 compared to last quarter. Last quarter was TWD 0.91 for EPS.
The same quarter a year ago, the same quarter a year ago, the EPS was a loss of TWD 0.95. The ROE, return on equity, for this quarter was 5%. It's the same as last quarter. The approximate utilization rate is 55%, which is lower than last quarter, which is 60%. The depreciation expense, it's a little bit lower than last quarter, becomes TWD 1,170 million. The CapEx for this quarter was TWD 303 million. So this is the income statement. For next page, we can quickly take a look at the non-operating item. It's majorly two items. One is, again, on financial liability at the amortized cost, which is what we mentioned earlier that because of the redemption of the remaining ECB and then recognize the non-operating profit, that's this one, TWD 254 million. The financial cost, actually, it's interest expense. Okay?
Then please flip to the next page. We'll discuss about balance sheet. Well, since we have mentioned that we already fully redeemed our remaining ECB, so we're starting from there. Please take a look at the December 31st, 2023, on the current portion of the bond payable. You still can see that there is a TWD 4.7 billion. That's exactly the ECB outstanding. But if you take a look on its right-hand side, on March 31st, it's gone. It's disappeared. And that's because it has been fully redeemed. And because of that, you can also find out that the cash on hand also declined compared to last quarter, end of last quarter, becomes TWD 5.6 billion cash on hand. But because we early pay out the ECB outstanding, so the total liability also going down from TWD 33.8 billion to TWD 28.2 billion.
Therefore, the debt ratio also going down from 49% to 43% as of March 31st. So therefore, the total assets also becomes TWD 46,745 million. But the net worth, which is the total equity, going up from TWD 35.3 billion up to TWD 36.6 billion. And the book value per share or net worth per share also going up from TWD 80.09 to TWD 83.28. And the key index, with the debt ratio going down, the current ratio going up from 135% to 139%. Both the ratio and the index are going to the healthier level. So that's pretty much what I have. Okay? Then now we can begin the Q&A. Please submit your question in the input box on the webcast window now. Thank you.
Okay. This is Steve. I think after Joe's explained, first, I think I will provide some better picture about the Q2 guidance. As I just mentioned, I think for the Q2, right now, we see most of the gross momentum now coming from the Cellular and Wi-Fi. Both these two applications, due to the smartphone demand, I think what we see is these two applications now will have a strong growth in Q2. But at the same time, we see infrastructure maybe have slightly decreased. And also, optical may be facing a bigger decline compared to Q1 because of the traditional low season of the 3D sensing. Yeah. So that's the reason why even we think from Q1 to Q2, the utilization rate should be going up because of the revenue growth. But at the same time, what we see is the product mix may be a little worse than Q1.
So that's the reason why we gave the guidance about the mid-20 range of the gross margin. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. There's a question about the 3D sensing application. As you know, we allocate our 3D sensing revenue into our others. Yeah. And also, I think the whole of our optical revenue now will categorize in one segment. So maybe it's not easy to separate the 3D sensing because, as you know, that's almost a single-end customer. Yeah. And until right now, I don't think we can get a very clear shift plan from then for the second half of the year. Yeah. But basically, what we see from recently two years, the end customer is adding up one supplier for the 3D sensing. So it looks like the total 3D sensing supplier right now, the share was more equal compared to three to five years ago.
So I think if we just check with our 3D sensing revenue, maybe it will go down a little compared to last year. But as we mentioned in the previous meeting, actually, from last year, actually, we have more diversified our revenue of our optical devices. Right now, the non-3D sensing revenue, it's more than double digits in 2023. And this year maybe have the chance to reach almost like a 20%. Yeah. So I think for the whole year, optical device revenue maybe right now, we don't got a very clear picture. But what we have more confidence is our non-3D sensing revenue will be growing year-on-year. Thank you. Okay. It's a question about the Wi-Fi, like I mentioned. But I think for WIN Semi, the portion about 6E and 7, I think maybe it's a little different with the industry.
As I just mentioned in the minor comment, WIN Semi always provides the most advanced technology for all the applications. So start from last year, we already provide a lot of 6E modules to our big customer and also got a very good result in smartphone. Yeah. And this year, we also see not only the cellular but also our Wi-Fi router customer. They're also rising up about the 6E and 7 portion in their others. What WIN Semi see is for our tier-one Wi-Fi customer, no matter cellular or router. Actually, right now, they are all very big portion is for Wi-Fi 6E and 7. I think right now, for Wi-Fi 5 or Wi-Fi 6, maybe has the latest portion in their portfolio in WIN Semi. Thank you.
Okay. While we are still waiting for more questions coming, maybe we share our view with everybody, the question which is from the investor one hour ago. There is one question asking about LiDAR because it sounds like China has their own LiDAR product. The investor would like to know where the LiDAR product comes from and is there any opportunity for WIN Semi. Well, I think WIN Semi engaged several LiDAR products and the technology with a different customer for a period of time. I think not only for the long-distance LiDAR and also the short-distance LiDAR, it's all in our portfolio with our existing customer. We probably cannot really tell where our foundry product goes to. According to the communication with the customer, it looks like we have the customer in the China automotive LiDAR supply chain.
We also have other customers also in the U.S. or the European market supply chain. So we believe no matter which one is ramping up, we both have the opportunity for the LiDAR market.
Okay. It's a question about the picture about 2024. What's the driver for 2024's growth? As we just mentioned previously, no matter the second half year last year or this year, the first half, what we see is definitely because of the smartphone demand was turning back from the negative to the positive growth. And especially, what we see is a stronger demand for the high-end smartphone. So it's definitely driven WIN Semi's revenue has a better result than last year, especially in cellular PA, Wi-Fi PA. Yeah. Yeah. I think that maybe is the two major volume drivers for WIN Semi in this year. Thank you.
Well, I think, again, while we are waiting for more questions coming, we'd like to share with you about some questions in last section. There's one of the questions asking about is there any update for CapEx and the depreciation expense for the year 2024? I think I would like to say that in last earnings call before the Chinese New Year, we provided the whole year's depreciation expense will be year on year will be almost flatish. That's our view. And for Q1, actually, the depreciation expense is a little bit lower than the Q4. So I think for this point of view, depreciation expense, we still keep the same view. And for the CapEx, also in last earnings call, we also mentioned that the whole year CapEx will be pretty similar to the year of 2023, which is TWD 3 billion plus and minus.
So far, I think we still keep it pretty the same, maybe between TWD 2 billion and TWD 4 billion, mainly for the fab and the equipment maintenance. There will be no new capacity will be added into our fab for this year, year 2024. Yeah. Thank you.
Okay. I think we're still waiting for the further question. Yeah. But I think we wait the other a few minutes. If we don't have got a further question, I think we will end up today's meeting. And before that, I think I will update our new fab, which is located in Kaohsiung. And that we start to build a construction around three years ago because a lot of investors still want to know the further information about this project. I think for this project right now, we will finish the shell maybe at the end of first half this year.
Then after that, we will hold a cleanroom buildup and also the equipment acquirement because right now, our utilization rate is just around 60% up and down. Compared to what we have right now, I think we still have plenty capacity to support the demand this year. So I think before we reach the utilization rate about 80%, we will wait the demand ramp up back and also check with the technology or application change year-over-year because that's also related to our equipment layout in the future. So I think at the end of this year, we will only finish the shell in this year and stop the plan about the cleanroom and the equipment acquired. Yeah. That's about the Luzhu Science Park project right now status.
Okay. Now, the time is 4:15 P.M. And there are no further questions on the pipeline. Thank you for your participation in WIN Semi's conference. There will be a webcast replay within hours. Please visit www.winfoundry.com under the investor relations section. Thank you very much. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.