Per reporter: Zhu Chengxiang Per reporter Per editor: Zhang Haini
The implementation of the pilot registration system reform of the Science and Technology Innovation Board and the ChiNext Board has attracted many spin-off subsidiaries of A-share listed companies to list on the Science and Technology Innovation Board and the ChiNext Board, and Goertek (002241, SZ), a leader in the A-share electroacoustic industry, is one of them. On December 28, 2021, the IPO of Goertek Microelectronics Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Goertek, was accepted.
Goertek is a semiconductor company based on the research and development, production and sales of MEMS devices and microsystem modules, interestingly, Goertek's chips are mainly purchased, supplemented by self-research. On March 2, the Daily Economic News reporter called the office of the secretary of the board of directors of Goertek on the proportion of self-developed chips and the gross profit margin was lower than that of comparable peers, and its staff asked to send an interview email.
Semiconductor companies that mainly outsource chips
Goertek micro business covers chip design, product development, packaging and testing and system applications and other key aspects of the industry chain, through vertical integration, to provide customers with "chip + device + module" one-stop product solutions. However, the prospectus (draft declaration) shows that the vast majority of the chips in the products currently sold by Goertek are purchased. That is to say, Goertek is mainly a MEMS device and module manufacturer, and the proportion of self-developed MEMS chips is low.
MEMS sensor is mainly composed of MEMS chip and ASIC chip package, MEMS chip to the outside physical, chemical, biological and other signals into electrical signals, ASIC chip reads the above electrical signals and processing, output, so as to achieve the function of external information acquisition.
In 2018, 2019, 2020 and January to June 2021, Goertek's MEMS acoustic sensor shipments equipped with self-developed chips were 135 million, 238 million, 249 million and 99 million, accounting for 13.16%, 15.69%, 14.14% and 11.73% of its MEMS acoustic sensor shipments, respectively. This means that most of Goertek's MEMS chips are purchased.
From January to June 2021, its top five suppliers are Infineon, Jiangsu Punuowei Electronics Co., Ltd., Shennan Circuit Co., Ltd., Suzhou Helinwei Technology Co., Ltd. and SMIC.
Image source: Screenshot of Goertek's prospectus (filing draft).
Among them, Infineon mainly provides MEMS chips and ASIC chips, with a purchase amount of 575 million yuan, accounting for 56.48% of the total procurement, Jiangsu Punuowei and Shennan Circuit mainly provide PCB circuit boards, and Lin Weina mainly provides metal shells, and SMIC mainly provides MEMS chip wafer manufacturing, with a procurement amount of 27.3819 million yuan, accounting for 2.69% of the total procurement.
PCB board, metal shell technology content is low, chip design, chip manufacturing related procurement only Infineon and SMIC integration. The finished chip (designed and manufactured by Infineon) is purchased from Infineon, and the "wafer fabrication" is purchased from SMIC, which means that a large part of Goertek's self-developed chips may be manufactured through SMIC.
In contrast, another major MEMS acoustic sensor manufacturer, Minxin,000, has a very different proportion of shares from Goertek. According to the prospectus of Minxin Shares, its top five suppliers in 2019 are SMIC, Huatian Technology (Xi'an) Co., Ltd., Wuxi China Resources Shanghua Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou Industrial Park Nano Industry Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd. and Wuxi Hongguang Microelectronics Co., Ltd., which mainly purchase wafers (i.e. wafer manufacturing) from SMIC, China Resources Shanghua and Suzhou Industrial Park Nano Industry Technology Research Institute, accounting for 25.61%, 13.14% and 9.04% respectively. From Huatian Technology (Xi'an) and Wuxi Hongguang, the packaging service is purchased.
Among them, SMIC and China Resources Shanghua (under China Resources Micro) are well-known chip foundries in China, and Huatian Technology is also one of the three major packaging factories in China. Therefore, from the main procurement content, it can be seen that Minxin shares is a standard chip design company.
And Goertek, because most of the chips are purchased, may be more inclined to device and module companies. In the prospectus (draft declaration), Goertek also mentioned that the company needs to further improve the technical level and performance indicators of self-developed chips in the future, so as to continuously enhance its comprehensive competitiveness.
Gross margin is significantly lower than comparable peers
According to Yole's data, the top five global MEMS acoustic sensor market share in 2020 are Goertek, Lou's, AAC Technology, Yutai Technology and Minxin Shares, of which Goertek Micro MEMS acoustic sensor market share reached 32%, surpassing Lou's for the first time to rank first in the world.
However, in 2020, more than 80% of Goertek's MEMS chips are purchased, that is, although Goertek has become a global MEMS acoustic sensor "brother", it is not a "brother" of MEMS acoustic chips.
On the other hand, Goertek's micro-gross profit margin level is also significantly lower than that of comparable peers. According to the prospectus (draft declaration), in 2018, 2019, 2020 and January to June 2021, the gross profit margin of Goertek micro was 29.69%, 22.85%, 22.38% and 24.30% respectively, while the average values of comparable peers such as Lou's, Minxin, Ruichuang Micro-Nano and Sifang Optoelectronics were 45.27%, 44.08%, 45.23% and 47.10%, respectively. In 2018, the average difference between Goertek and comparable peers was about sixteen percentage points, while from January to June 2021, the gap widened to about 23 percentage points, that is, the gross profit margin gap is getting bigger and bigger.
As far as January to June 2021 is concerned, the gross profit margins of Lou's, Minxin, Ruichuang Weina and Sifang Optoelectronics were 40.34%, 34.59%, 63.39% and 50.08% respectively.
For the gap with Lou's gross profit margin, Goertek said that due to the company's chip purchase, self-research as a supplement, and Lou's chip is mainly self-developed, so that the company's gross profit margin level is lower than Lou's.
For the gross profit margin gap with Minxin shares, Goertek said that Minxin shares focus on the research and development and design of MEMS sensors, although engaged in some wafer testing and other production processes, but the main production links such as wafer manufacturing and part of the packaging are still completed by professional wafer manufacturing and packaging manufacturers, and the company's core competitiveness is reflected in chip design, product development, packaging testing and system applications and other key links of the industrial chain, and the vertical integration of the industrial chain is longer. Therefore, the company's sales scale is significantly larger than that of Minxin shares, but the gross profit margin level is relatively low.
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