The last vestige of Osram as an independent entity will begin to disappear a week from today, when new owner ams Osram delists the company from one stock exchange, planning a second and final yank for three months later.
“Osram’s listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is expected to be terminated as of 30 June 2021 and the listing on the Munich Stock Exchange will be terminated as of 30 September 2021,” ams Osram announced this morning from headquarters in Premstaetten, Austria.
With that — if all goes to plan, which things have not always done in the ams Osram saga — the familiar OSR symbol under which Osram has traded since splitting from Siemens in 2013 will vanish. Osram trading has been subsumed under the AMS listing used by ams before the acquisition and still used by the newly renamed ams-Osram AG, known less formally as ams Osram Group.
ams Osram early last month stated its intentions to delist Osram, saying at the time that it would offer to buy the 28% of Osram shares it did not already own for a price of €52.60 (at the time converted to $62.83), and that it would delist Osram regardless of the uptake.
The offer period is now complete, having run from May 21 through June 18. Ams said today that it picked up “approximately 7.2%” additional shares, increasing its ownership in Osram to 80.3%. Having said in early May that it would provide more details of its delisting plans after the offer period expired, it did so today with its two-step Frankfurt/Munich intentions.
“We have achieved our objective for the delisting offer which was to streamline the corporate structure, and we have also added meaningfully to our shareholding in Osram,” said ams Osram CEO Alexander Everke. “We are excited about the future prospects of ams Osram and look forward to continuing our successful integration to deliver on our strategic vision to create the uncontested leader in optical solutions.”
ams Osram shares trade on the SIX Swiss Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, the business of integrating the two companies continues, with ams Osram emphasizing chip-level activities and divesting certain smart lighting operations. It recently sold a chunk of its Digital Systems business to Atlanta-based Acuity Brands, a few months after selling a Digital Systems factory in Plovdiv, Bulgaria to San Jose, CA-based contract manufacturing firm Sanmina.
More sales could likely come, although it would seem that ams Osram will hold on to its horticultural lighting operations led by Fluence, and possibly to its architectural, façade, and general illumination Traxon unit, which does not have a heavy emphasis on connected lighting and the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT-connected lighting has been an elusive brass ring for many lighting companies.
ams Osram is based in Premstaetten and now operates a second head office in Munich, Osram’s traditional home.
Osram has been part of ams for nearly a year now, having spent some 7 years on its own after its 2013 spinout from Siemens, which had owned it since 1978. Osram was founded in 1919, at first selling filament bulbs based on osmium and tungsten. It takes its name from combing those two words, using the German “wolfram” for tungsten.
MARK HALPER is a contributing editor for LEDs Magazine, and an energy, technology, and business journalist ([email protected]).
*Updated June 24, 2021 12:25 PM for clarification to the end point of trading.
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