Former Siemens Unit Osram Starts Trading at EUR24 (7/08/13)
By Nicky Redl
Shares in former Siemens AG (SIE.XE) unit Osram Licht AG started trading Monday at a price of 24 euros ($31), valuing the listed portion of the company at around EUR2.51 billion.
There was no previous price indication, as Siemens issued 104,689,400 shares of Osram to its shareholders in a spin-off instead of conducting a bookbuilding. Siemens shareholders received one Osram share for every 10 Siemens shares they hold. The stock will be included in the DAX for just one day.
Siemens in late April said it valued the 80.5% in Osram it planned to spin off at EUR2.6 billion, giving the unit a total valuation of EUR3.23 billion, according to Dow Jones calculations. Siemens retains 17% of Osram, while Siemens' pension trust is keeping a 2.5% stake.
The listing has been a long time in the making following several delays. In 2011, Siemens pulled a planned offering of Osram stock due to volatile market conditions as Europe's sovereign debt crisis intensified. In the spring of 2012, it said it was considering an initial public offering for the third quarter, only to decide later on a spin-off.
Osram is the world's second-largest lighting company, with 2012 revenue of EUR5.4 billion. In 2012, Osram incurred a net loss of EUR378.3 million, with personnel expenses amounting to EUR1.74 billion. To rein in costs, it last year announced a restructuring that includes shedding 8,000 jobs globally by 2014. As of Sept. 30 last year, Osram employed 40,157 staff.
The revamp aims to achieve EUR1 billion in savings by 2015 and an 8% profit margin before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
Write to Nicky Redl at nicky.redl@dowjones.com
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