Osram agrees to buy fellow lighting manufacturer Siteco

Feb. 28, 2011
The acquisition will allow Osram to expand in the market for energy-efficient lighting systems and luminaires, and opens up further potential for growth in LED applications.
Osram is to acquire Siteco Lighting GmbH, a lighting company based in Traunreut, Germany, from Barclays Private Equity. The transaction remains subject to approval by the relevant antitrust authorities, and the parties have agreed to keep the purchase price undisclosed.

Siteco has a worldwide workforce of 1250 and achieved revenue of around EUR220 million in fiscal year 2010. In comparison, Osram employs around 40,000 people worldwide and had sales of EUR4.7 billion in fiscal year 2010.

Siteco was originally part of Siemens – the parent company of Osram – but was sold in 1997.

Siteco supplies luminaires and lighting systems for urban infrastructure such as public and commercial buildings, streets, tunnels, airports and sports stadiums. It produces luminaires in Germany and China and has over 15 sales companies in Europe, as well as a global sales network. Osram says that the acquisition will provide it with broad access to the market for lighting solutions, and a modern range of products in the field of interior and exterior lighting.

Osram says that is the entire global lighting market is estimated at around EUR45 billion annually, and that more than two thirds of this figure is covered by luminaires and lighting systems. “With this acquisition, Osram is addressing this key market,” said Martin Goetzeler, CEO of Osram.

“As a leading manufacturer of lighting components, we are now also further expanding our competencies in the solution business,” continued Goetzeler. “This applies to conventional energy-saving lighting technology and in particular to LED-based luminaires and systems, where we are expecting the greatest growth.”

Osram believes that, driven by semiconductor-based technologies such as LEDs and OLEDs, the total lighting market is likely to grow to around EUR65 billion by the year 2016.

Furthermore, Osram will benefit from the development of new products based on Siteco’s wealth of experience arising from collaboration with end customers, architects, lighting designers and installers. Siteco is responsible, for example, for the lighting of the Allianz Arena in Munich, Barajas Airport in Madrid, and one of the world's tallest buildings, the Taipei Tower in Taiwan.

According to Osram, the Siteco portfolio ideally supplements the product range of the joint venture formed by Osram and Traxon Technologies in 2008.