Among Others, Five Chinese Companies Pursue OSRAM’s Lighting Business

Five Chinese LED manufacturers have been competing head-to-head in the bid for Osram’s lighting business, after the German company announced it would be spinning-off its less profitable general lighting business in April 2015.

As we analysed the company following the announcement, we wrote that Osram believe that a fully integrated player that covers the entire value chain will not achieve synergistic benefits and will actually lose advantage. Those of us who have worked for large lighting companies will fully recognise this. It takes a different kind of sales force, product management, manufacturing and infrastructure to cope with customised solutions and lighting design as opposed to mass market distribution. What we used to call ‘box shifters’. The surprise is why it took the lighting giant so long to realise this.

The five listed Chinese companies in the race for Osram’s lighting business include MLS (also known as Forest Lighting), ETI, Tsinghua Tongfang, Felio Acoustics and Foshan Lighting. All the potential Chinese buyers have the needed financing platforms, but for the German lighting company price is just one of the decisive factors. Another main concern is the synergistic effect from the resulting partnership. In this article, LEDinside evaluates the chances of the five companies’ succeeding in the acquisition of Osram’s general lighting business.  Read more at LEDs Inside.

14 Jan