Belgian chipmaker Melexis blurries full-year outlook

By Leo Marchandon

April 30 (Reuters) - Belgium's Melexis MLXS.BR, which mostly makes microchips for cars, stood by its sales forecast for the first half of 2025 on Wednesday but refrained from saying it still expects strong growth in the latter half, which weighed on its share price.

The company, whose customers include Tesla TSLA.O and China's BYD 002594.SZ and NIO 9866.HK, said its sales fell 18% year-on-year to 198 million euros ($225.2 million) in the first quarter, which was within its expectations.

It said the decline in sales, about 90% of which are for automotive applications, was limited by the outperformance of product lines including smart motor drivers, inductive position sensors and temperature sensors.

The weakness in auto and industrial demand has been weighing on the companies globally and putting them under pressure as investors stay cautious about the impacts of U.S. tariffs and rising trade tensions.

Still, Melexis said it continues to expect sales of around 400 million euros in the first half, but shied away from forecasting significant sales growth in the second half of the year, which it previously said in February.

That, said Degroof Petercam analyst Michael Roeg, created uncertainty around Melexis' expected performance.

The company's share fell nearly 7% at the market open before recovering to a drop of about 1% as of 0725 GMT.

The company slightly lowered its gross and operating profit margin forecasts.

It now expects a gross profit margin of around 39% and an operating margin of around 15%, against its previous expectations of around 40% and 16%, respectively.

It expects capital expenditure of around 50 million euros for the full year.

($1 = 0.8794 euros)