Melexis, Belgium’s largest semiconductor supplier, on Wednesday forecast lower margin and sales for the first half of 2025, sending its shares to nearly five-year lows, as inventory corrections by automotive clients continue into the new year.
Melexis, whose automotive semiconductor business made up 90 per cent of its total sales in 2024, counts Tesla and Chinese carmakers BYD and NIO among its customers.
European and North American customers pushed back some orders during the fourth quarter to cut down high inventories, CEO Marc Biron said during a post-earnings call, adding there had been no such moves from Chinese automakers.
He said Melexis did not expect further order delays, with some customer inventories now at one month’s worth, while others retain products for three to four months.
Melexis expects its operating margin to be around 16 per cent in the first half of 2025, down from 26.3 per cent in the same period in 2024.
It sees half year sales of around 400 million euros ($415.4 million), versus 487.5 million euros last year. Sales in the first quarter should be in a range of 190 million to 200 million euros, it said.
The company’s shares fell as much as 14.7 per cent to 52.65 euros in early trading, their lowest price since mid-May 2020, and were down 11 per cent as of 1132 GMT, at the bottom of Brussels’ main index BEL 20.
Michael Roeg, an analyst at Degroof Petercam, said the results and outlook were well below market expectations across the board.
Melexis did not provide a detailed guidance for full year sales or earnings, but said the sales were expected to pick up significantly in the second half of 2025.
“We believe that … around summer, the inventory of our customers will be depleted,” Biron said in the call.
Melexis’ fourth quarter operating margin was 14.0 per cent on sales of 197.4 million euros. Analyst were expecting a 18.6 per cent margin and sales of 205.4 million, a company-compiled poll showed.
($1 = 0.9629 euros)
