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RF front-end chip leader Maxscend: Increase R & D investment to create new-quality productive forces.

Update time : 2024-10-17 18:10:10

As a leading enterprise in the domestic radio frequency front-end chip industry in China, Maxscend (300782) has broken through the market monopoly of international leading enterprises and emerged in domestic and foreign competitions by building its own production lines and coordinating the design, research and development, and manufacturing of radio frequency front-end products, becoming one of the main competitors in the radio frequency industry.

In recent years, Maxscend has continuously increased R&D and innovation investment to accelerate the formation of new productive forces and empower new development drivers. At the same time, the company is fully promoting the construction of its own complete ecological chain. Through the industrialization project of Coretech Semiconductor, it builds intelligent manufacturing capabilities for key products and processes, and creates an "intelligent quality manufacturing" resource platform integrating design, materials, devices, processes, and integration technologies, laying a solid foundation for a high-value, differentiated, and long-term sustainable development path.

R&D investment increased by more than 90% year-on-year in the first half of the year.

Founded in 2012, Maxscend is the domestic radio frequency front-end chip manufacturer with the highest market share in China.

Radio frequency front-end chips are a core component of mobile intelligent terminal products. Smartphones are the products with the highest penetration rate, the most diverse forms, and the largest demand among mobile intelligent terminals. Therefore, the main downstream application field of Maxscend is smartphones. Nowadays, Maxscend's customers have covered major global Android mobile phone manufacturers. Relevant products can also be applied in fields that require wireless connections such as smart wearables, communication base stations, automotive electronics, Bluetooth headsets, VR/AR devices, and network communication networking equipment.

From the perspective of the most important downstream application field, the current terminal demand in the mobile phone market has slightly warmed up.

According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, from January to July 2024, the total mobile phone shipments in the Chinese market reached 171 million units, a year-on-year increase of 15.3%. Among them, 5G mobile phone shipments were 145 million units, a year-on-year increase of 23.6%, accounting for 84.8% of mobile phone shipments in the same period.

According to the statistics and forecasts of Yole Development, the mobile terminal radio frequency front-end market was 19.2 billion US dollars in 2022 and is expected to reach 26.9 billion US dollars by 2028. The average annual compound growth rate from 2022 to 2028 will be 5.8%. Among them, the market size of transmit modules is expected to be 12.2 billion US dollars, receive modules are expected to be 4.5 billion US dollars, discrete filters are expected to be 3.0 billion US dollars, discrete conduction switches are expected to be 900 million US dollars, antenna switches are expected to be 1.9 billion US dollars, and discrete low noise amplifiers are expected to be 1.2 billion US dollars.

In the first half of 2024, Maxscend achieved operating income of 2.285 billion yuan, an increase of approximately 37.2% compared to the same period of the previous year. The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 354 million yuan. Since going public in 2019, the company has maintained a stable financial situation. From 2020 to 2023, the company's average annual compound growth rate of operating income was 16.18%, and the average annual compound growth rate of net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 1.52%. It has achieved sustainable and stable growth in business performance.

In recent years, Maxscend has continuously increased R&D and innovation investment to accelerate the formation of new productive forces and empower new development drivers. In the first half of 2024, Maxscend's R&D investment was 493 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 94.22%. The company's R&D personnel scale is also continuously growing. As of 2023, the company had a total of 1,113 R&D personnel. The growth rate of R&D personnel from 2021 to 2023 reached 144%. As of the half-year of 2024, Maxscend has obtained a total of 132 patents, including 130 domestic patents and 2 international patents. Continuous and stable R&D investment has ensured the company's own R&D and design capabilities and its leading technological advantages.

Comprehensively build an "intelligent quality manufacturing" resource platform.

In recent years, Maxscend has been fully promoting the construction of its own complete ecological chain. Through the industrialization project of Coretech Semiconductor, it builds intelligent manufacturing capabilities for key products and processes, and creates an "intelligent quality manufacturing" resource platform integrating design, materials, devices, processes, and integration technologies. Relying on the advantages of the resource platform, it transforms from a product-based company to a platform-based company, laying the foundation for a high-value, differentiated, and long-term sustainable development path.

Facing the challenge of long-term monopoly of radio frequency key devices by foreign enterprises, after careful research and decision-making, Maxscend has invested key resources to build the production and manufacturing capabilities of key products. The business model has changed from Fabless to Fab-Lite, that is, all products are independently developed, but in production, a combination of outsourcing and independent production is adopted. Under this model, for products with relatively complete industrial chain resources of foundries, outsourcing production is adopted. The company only engages in product research and development, design, and sales, and the remaining links are entrusted to wafer manufacturers and packaging and testing factories respectively. For products with high requirements for process technology, customization, and differentiation, the company adopts an independent production method.

As a leading enterprise in the field of radio frequency chips in China, Maxscend has the full-industry-chain capabilities of chip design, process manufacturing, and packaging and testing by building its own filter production and manufacturing capabilities. Up to now, the overall progress of the company's filter production line has completed the planning of various schedule nodes from factory construction to process line opening at a speed exceeding the company's planning. It has successfully built an international advanced 6-inch filter production line. Since stable mass production, the actual shipments have reached 100,000 pieces, fully proving that the company's filter products have withstood market tests and have process technology and large-scale mass production capabilities.

The relevant progress of the 12-inch wafer production line is also a hot topic of concern for investors. According to people from Maxscend, the first-generation process production line for 12-inch radio frequency switches and low noise amplifiers has achieved process line opening and entered the mass production stage in the second quarter of 2024. "Self-produced radio frequency switches have been mass-produced and shipped, and the volume is gradually increasing at the client end. It has covered multiple brand customers and most ODM customers. Subsequently, it will be gradually expanded to other discrete devices and module products."

Maxscend has made innovative investments in 3D stacked packaging, aiming to achieve better breakthroughs in area, cost, and performance to meet customer needs and enhance product competitiveness. At the same time, the company has launched the most important and complex module product in the radio frequency front-end field, L-PAMiD. Its performance has reached the industry mainstream level and has been verified and passed by some brand customers. People from Maxscend said that this product is the first series of products in the industry to achieve a fully domestic supply chain. It will be an important driving point for future revenue growth. "At the same time, the complementation of this product truly means that the company has the ability to provide full-category solutions for radio frequency front ends."

Cash dividends since listing have reached 829 million yuan.

"Maxscend is an efficient enterprise and also a community of people with common ideals." People from Maxscend told reporters that the company has established clear visions and values and united a group of like-minded and passionate companions. "The company's mission is: Be a practitioner of technology, explore the boundaries of physical resources, and expand the margins of human access to information and perception of the world."

"We adhere to our commitment to the capital market: never falsify and disclose frankly." People from Maxscend emphasized that the company treats large and small investors equally and does not seek personal or small group interests through manipulation. "We firmly adhere to the long-termism of technology supremacy and believe that value improvement is achieved through the actual capabilities of enterprises." It is understood that Maxscend has been rated as grade A for three consecutive years in the information disclosure assessment of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and has been selected as an excellent case and compiled into the excellent case compilation of annual reports of listed companies on the ChiNext twice.

At the same time, Maxscend continuously incorporates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concepts into the enterprise's development goals and explores a new path for the common development of corporate financial performance and social value. "The company mobilizes the heads of various departments of the enterprise to deeply understand the essence of ESG." People from Maxscend emphasized that the company takes ESG as an important reference for setting long-term development goals for the enterprise and guides employees to regard the company's contributions in ESG as an important source of happiness. "We have begun to explore and promote improvement measures in various aspects of environment, society, and corporate governance, not being superficial and not engaging in formalism."

Since going public in June 2019, Maxscend has implemented cash dividends for five consecutive years, with cumulative cash dividends reaching 829 million yuan. The company has clearly formulated profit distribution policies in the "Articles of Association": After fully reserving statutory provident funds and surplus provident funds, if the conditions for cash dividends are met, the company shall distribute dividends in cash. The cash distributed annually shall be not less than 10% of the distributable profit realized in the current year.

People from Maxscend emphasized that in the future, it will continue to coordinate the dynamic balance between performance growth and shareholder returns according to the development stage, continuously improve the level of shareholder returns, implement and build a "long-term, stable, and sustainable" shareholder value return mechanism, and continuously enhance the sense of gain of the majority of investors.

WLS hot－sale chips

MAX14830ETM TDA7266D CD4030BE AD7606BST

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