The investor conference is about to begin. Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen, no matter where you are. Welcome to WIN Semi' s Results Webcast Conference for third quarter of 2022. My name is Joe Tsen, the Spokesperson 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 and provide brief guidance for the third quarter of 2022. Secondly, we 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 slide. Please note that this presentation contains forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current expectations. 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, and welcome everyone. For the third quarter of 2022, WIN Semi's consolidated revenue was TWD 3.9 billion, and that's down 26% quarter-over-quarter and 42% year-over-year, as previously stated. This was mainly due to the impact of the ongoing industry adjustment in the Android smartphone market, which result in a further decline in our capacity utilization rate to approximately 40%. Our third quarter gross margin would have been 21.1% excluding a one-off factor. We recognized a one-off valuation loss on overseas investment targets held by a consolidated subsidiary whose main business purpose is investment. The overseas investment target went to IPO this year.
Due to significant volatility in the global economy in this third quarter, we recognized a one-off valuation loss, which impact our gross margin by 5.1 percentage points. As a result, our consolidated gross margin was 16% and our operating margin was -5.1%. Net income for the third quarter was NT$ 245 million and EPS was NT$ 0.83. Among the shipment of different product category in the third quarter, consumer-related applications, including cellular PA, Wi-Fi PA, still had the largest decline. This not only reflect the high inventory level in the market, but also reflected consumers' concern about the macroeconomic downturn.
Comparatively, for the industrial application focused infrastructure segment, while its performance also declined from the previous quarter, its revenue for the first three quarters of this year maintained positive year-on-year growth, as it was less affected by the macro environment. The optical segment significantly increased quarter-on-quarter, given that it has entered a traditionally strong season. Although the global macroeconomic remain challenging in the near term, our fab with declining utilization rate offer our customers excellent opportunities. We have seen that both our microwave communication and the optical customer was becoming more aggressive in a number of the tape-outs for R&D. Some tape-outs are for existing customers to qualify our next generation process for their new product in the next two years.
Some are for the new customer who choose us as their partner to enter the new market or the new application for the coming years. The world has entered the post-COVID era. That we have received increasing number of customer visits and the new project roll-outs as we approach, like, the end of this year. Mainly focusing on some end market trends. In addition to continued penetration of the 5G mobile communication and deployment of the 5G infrastructure, the outsourcing trend of the optical communication and optical sensing is also emerging. In particular, customers' interest and engagement with us in advanced process technology, such as the third generation semiconductor material, including gallium nitride on silicon carbide and indium phosphide, are higher than ever.
During the economic downturn, we slow down our pace of the capacity expansion, but continuing to activate the investment in R&D to seize the opportunity when the dawn comes. Looking ahead, for the first quarter of 2022, our revenue is expected to decline low teens% quarter-over-quarter, and the gross margin will be between the level of high teens and low 20s%. I will turn the call back over to Joe. Thank you.
Okay, it's our pleasure to present our financial results for the third quarter of 2022. You can refer to the presentation slide, the material, and we're gonna start it from page four. Before that, I still wanna remind you guys to read all the safe harbor notice on page two. Okay, page four talks about revenue and the margin. Our Q3 2022 revenue was TWD 3.9 billion. QOQ was down 26% and the YOY was down 42%, as expected earlier.
Due to a further decline in the capacity utilization rate from 60% last quarter to 40% this quarter, I mean, Q3, the gross margin declined by 14.2 percentage point sequentially to 16%, and operating margin declined by 19.2 percentage point to - 5.1%. The gross margin is different from our expectations earlier. It's mainly because of we suffer a one-off valuation loss on the 100% owned subsidiary investment company whose main business purpose is for investment. We will have explanation for next page, in page five.
On page five, about our gross margin, our third quarter gross margin would have been 21.1% if we exclude a one-off factor. That's because which we recognized that one-off valuation loss on our overseas investment target. As I mentioned earlier, our subsidiary, 100% owned subsidiary, who is a investment company, is holding a overseas investment target. The company just went IPO this year, and due to the significant volatility in the global equity market in Q3, so therefore we recognize the one-off valuation loss. Also, when it consolidated into our income statement, the
It impacts our gross margin by around 5.1 percentage point. Therefore, the consolidated gross margin become 15% in Q3. If we take that into consideration, for the accumulated Q1 to Q3 total, the one-off factor impact the Q1 to Q3's income statement is 1.1%, or I'm sorry, 1.1 percentage point of the gross margin. Okay, then next page, please flip to page six, talk about earnings. The net profit for Q3 was TWD 245 million dollars. QOQ was down 55% and YOY down 84%.
The EPS coming at TWD 0.83, and the last quarter was TWD 1.52. Please flip to next page for page seven. To talk about product mix for this quarter. As we mentioned it earlier, Steve have mentioned it in the management comments. For the consumer product, including like a cellular PA and a Wi-Fi PA, it's a consumer product which is the decline, it's more significant. The cellular PA, the percentage from 40%-45% last quarter to this quarter is 30%-35%. The Wi-Fi remain the same between 5%-10%. Relatively, it's more stable, it's an industrial product, which is infrastructure.
Although there's still for the US dollar value still have a decline from Q2 to Q3, but the percentage is going up from 25%-30% to the range of 30%-35%. That's telling everybody that the industrial product is more stable, which is we still maintain YOY for the first three quarter stable even growth, a little bit growth. Last one will be the others, including the 3D sensing, optical sensing and the other subsidiaries income. The total is 26% going up from 20% of last quarter. This is what the product mix looks like.
Next page, it's page eight talking about Q4's guidance. I think Steve has mentioned it. Just read it over again. We expect Q4 2022's revenue to decline low-teens% QOQ. We also expect Q4 gross margin will be between high teens% and low 20s%. We can quickly go through the income statement for Q3 and the accumulated Q1 to Q3. The net revenue for Q3 2022 is TWD 3,909 million . I'm sorry, I still want to remind everybody that the financial report, the figure is based on the unaudited basis.
The final result should be based on the CPA's report. The net revenue, TWD 3,909 million QOQ was down 26% and YOY down 42%. The gross profit become TWD 624 million . In consideration of the one-off factor, about 5.1 percentage points, the consolidated gross margin will be 16%. Operating expense is 822 million TWD, the OpEx ratio is 21% this time. Because of the utilization rates going down significantly to 40%, normally we will treat it, the OpEx ratio should be in the range of maybe 12%, 14%, 15%, this kind of range.
If the utilization can maintain 70% or 80%, this kind of level or higher. For this kind of low utilization rate, it's not applicable. The operating income become negative. It's an operating loss for TWD 200 million. The operating margin is negative 5.1%. The non-op income was TWD 500 million. The details in page 12. Income before income tax was TWD 299 million. The income tax expense was TWD 55 million, so the net income become TWD 245 million. The net margin was 6.3%.
The EPS for Q3 was TWD 0.83 . The return on equity for this quarter was 4%, and utilization rate. The approximate utilization rate for Q3 was 40%, which is going down from 50% last quarter. The depreciation expense is a little bit more than last quarter, which is around TWD 1,038 million. The CapEx for Q3 was TWD 1,908 million. It's lower than last quarter. This is the Q3 result and the accumulated Q1 to Q3, the net revenue was TWD 14.803 billion, and the YOY was down 22%. The gross profit was TWD 3,939 million, so the gross margin become 26.6%.
The operating expense was TWD 2,476 million. The operating expense ratio was 17%. The operating income was TWD 1,463 million, and the operating margin was 9.9% for accumulated three quarters. The non-GAAP income was TWD 496 million. The income before income tax become TWD 1,959 million. The income tax expenses was TWD 384 million. The net income for the first three quarter was TWD 1,575 million. The net margin become 10.6%. The EPS for Q1 to Q3 accumulated, Q1 to Q3, 2022 was TWD 4. 43 cents .
The return on equity for the first three quarters was 7%, and the approximate utilization rate accumulated become 55%. The depreciation expense for the first three quarters was TWD 3,147 million. We believe that the whole year's depreciation expense will be less than 10% YOY compared to last year. The CapEx for the first three quarters accumulated TWD 6,208 million, which is we already in Q2's earnings call already postponed around one-third for the CapEx guidance and postpone from one around TWD 12 billion reduced to TWD 8 billion plus and minus for the whole year of 2022. We're going to maintain the same view before the.
Q2's earnings call. What we the major CapEx about our Kaohsiung's fab a new fab we still maintain the same schedule, which is we're gonna complete the Kaohsiung fab until the first main building finish. We're gonna wait and see what's gonna happen for the industry. Okay. Page 12, it's a non-GAAP item. I think I highlighted two major item for Q3, which is the first one will be the gain on the ECB buyback, which we did in Q3. It's TWD 360 million of the gain.
Another one will be the foreign exchange gain. Okay. Finally, we're gonna talk about consolidated balance sheet as at the September thirtieth, 2022. I think the cash and the cash equivalent is around TWD 10.88 billion. Our total assets will become TWD 70.398 billion. Our total liability was at TWD 35.091 billion, and the total equity was TWD 35.376 billion . The book value per share become TWD 78.8 dollar, which is going up from TWD 77.67 last in June 30th.
The key index, including like current ratio, becomes TWD 338 million since we pay out the dividend in this quarter. The current ratio went up from 210%. Finally, the debt ratio was 50%. It's a little bit lower. It went down. Okay, this is what I have. Now we begin the Q&A. Please just submit your question in the input box on the webcast window now. Thank you.
Okay, I think this time, as the revenue is still going down and it's a very long correction period WIN Semi listed, our revenue is going down more than like three quarters, and I think everybody was really concerned about how the bottom will be. I think as far as we see right now, we think the correction should become very. It should be only like at the end of the period. I think right now what we see, the bottom of this correction should be in the next year Q1. I think that should be the bottom.
The reason is because usually the Q1 is the lower season of the year and after the Q1, I think the demand should be a little ramped up since from Q2 next year. Right now what we see, the bottom of this correction, that would be the next year Q1, and then that will be a little recovery quarter on quarter by quarter. Thank you. Okay. Okay. There are a couple questions regarding the Q3's utilization rate and maybe further to Q4, and also asking about operating expense, some kind of question.
As we mentioned that Q3's utilization rate became 40%, it went down from 60% in Q2. To make a preliminary estimation for Q4, we just can say that it should be maybe a little bit lower than 40% currently. But what the exact number is still needs some time.
For operating expense, I think as I did talk a little bit about, normally, in the growing pattern, or at least we maintain about 70%-80% or above, that kind of utilization, then it's easier to make the judgment that that is OpEx ratio can maintain in the range of around 12%-14% and not even higher than 15%. This time, because of it's the UT is dropping sequentially. This kind of rule it seems not applicable. We do whatever we can to keep the operating expense as low as possible.
To see that from Q2 to Q3, the OpEx it went down around TWD 30 million. Of course, we hope we still can do something for Q4. For example, like, we encourage the employee to take a vacation at this kind of lower UT period and keep the low loading for our fab's facility. As you guys know that we said we've been growing in the past several years, and no matter the scale, and the number of fab and the number of employees, it's keep expanding for many years.
It's not very easy to control it and make the operating expense a very significant reduction. Anyway, we will do whatever we can to keep the low level of the operating expense. That's about the OpEx and the OpEx ratio. Thank you.
Okay. Since there has no further question, then I think I will move to discuss about the trend of the Q4 and how our capacity allocation. Yeah. I think, as I just mentioned earlier, the revenue from Q3 to Q4 have gone a low-teens percentage and at least down at least decline. I think we see is a very little decline. Most of the application is facing a little decline. No matter driver PA, Wi-Fi PA or even 3D sensing or infrastructure, I think move to Q4, the demand is all a little weaker than Q3. Yeah. For the application percentage decline for Q4, I think it's quite average.
Yeah, I think each segment maybe will drop around, like, 10%, this kind of range. The other question maybe you want to know about, because of this kind of low utilization rate, how's our capacity expansion plan in the future? As we mentioned before, right now our capacity is 41,000 wafer per month. At the end of this year, our Fab C will increase around, like, 2,000-3,000 capacity. The Luzhu Fab, I think right now we will only finish the shell of the building. For the cleanroom or equipment, I think we will watch the market demand very carefully.
Before we really see the ramp up of the demand and the UT will rising up back to like 80%, I think we will slow down all the new equipment plan expansion for the fab, the Luzhu Fab. Okay, thank you.
Okay. I think there's an investor asking about that we suffered a one-off valuation loss in one of our subsidiaries and who are holding the overseas investment target, who they are, and then what happened. I think first of all, there is a Chinese customer who are just IPO in the equity market. Before the IPO, we acquire part of the shares, become the shareholder. Of course, this is a strategic investment to maintain the relationship with the customer. Also, the
I think this is the biggest, a major PA design house in China. We are kind of expecting the financial profit for the long-term future. Because of that, we recognize that the one-off valuation loss for our subsidiary and the impact, the gross margin of 5.1 percentage point. Okay. That's the one. Another question from the investor including like, recently there is a lot of talking about WIN Semi kind of facing the price competition and also the market share, those kind of issue.
First of all, I think what we wanna say is, except the annual agreement or annual contract, we may negotiate with the customer. Otherwise, we don't have any kind of pricing down or any kind of a pricing pressure at this moment. Any kind of pricing competition. I think about the market share from one loss to our competitor from one of our major customer.
I think first of all, customers pursuing multiple sourcing using different foundry companies as multiple sourcing. It's quite normal, which means even in silicon semiconductor they also are using multiple foundry companies. I can assure you that they have been working with WIN Semi since day one and we have a very solid relationship. Even at this moment, they still have a lot of new tape-out for new process technology for the next maybe one or two years product.
We don't see, for Q3 or even Q4, the downturn is nothing to do with the outsourcing from their multiple sourcing policy. It's nothing to do with that. I mean, it's not, or even, because of price competition. It's purely the inventory correction and a macro environment making the demand weaker in Q3 or even Q4. I think our relationship with our customer is still very solid, and then they're still using our advanced GaAs technology and for the future products.
We believe the recent downturn is nothing to do with that. Thank you.
Okay. There is a question related to the CapEx plan. I think right now we, like Joe just saying, we still cooperate with our customer very closely right now and discuss our next year business. About the CapEx plan of next year, I think we still need some time to collect more customer information and data. We'll give you more detail.