Philips Announces Third Quarter Results But Lumileds Sale Might Be In Jeopardy

Frans van Houten, CEO:

“Philips delivered improved results for the third quarter of 2015, confirming that our operational performance continues to strengthen, despite deteriorating macro-economic conditions in a number of markets, most notably in China.

Healthcare comparable sales and order intake increased, driven by North America. Operational results also improved year-on-year, despite the impact of China and foreign exchange headwinds. Consumer Lifestyle again delivered a strong performance, with a significant product mix improvement driven by high growth in Health & Wellness and Personal Care. Lighting continued its trend of year-on-year performance improvement, driven by strong growth in our LED businesses, while we continue to actively manage the conventional lighting market decline.

For full-year 2015, we continue to expect modest comparable sales growth and an improvement of our operational performance.”

Philips is on schedule to complete the separation of the Lighting business in the first half of 2016. As previously stated, Philips is reviewing all strategic options for Philips Lighting, including an initial public offering and a private sale. The company now expects the related separation costs to come in at the lower end of EUR 200-300 million for 2015 and remain within that range in 2016.

Update on sale of majority stake in Lumileds to GO Scale Capital

In the course of seeking regulatory approvals regarding the sale of an 80.1% interest in Lumileds to a consortium led by GO Scale Capital, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has expressed certain unforeseen concerns. Philips and GO Scale Capital will continue to engage with CFIUS and will take all reasonable steps to address its concerns, but given these, the closing of the transaction is uncertain.

Lighting

Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus: light bright enough to paint a whole room

Lighting continued its operational improvement, with the EBITA margin, excluding restructuring and acquisition-related charges and other items, increasing by 40 basis points to 9.5% year-on-year. LED lighting comparable sales grew 24% and LED margins improved. LED sales now represent 44% of total Lighting sales, compared to 36% in Q3 2014. In line with industry trends, conventional lamps sales declined by 15%, resulting in an overall comparable sales decrease of 3% year-on-year.

“We are pleased with another quarter of strong performance from our LED business, which now represents close to half of Lighting sales. We continue to introduce LED innovations to customers. For example, Philips will outfit 32 Accenture offices with more than 140,000 LED-based products in India. The upgrade will enable significant energy savings and create a more pleasant work environment. Simultaneously, we will continue to proactively manage the conventional lighting market decline, allowing us to deliver improvements to Lighting EBITA margins.”

Full report here.

26 Oct