New offer for Osram

Author: Mario Schmidtgen
Date: 13.08.2019

AMS offers several billion

The Austrian sensor chip manufacturer AMS has made a takeover bid worth billions for the Munich-based lighting technology group Osram. A total of 4.3 billion euros and 38.50 euros per share were offered to shareholders. With this offer, AMS probably wants to outperform the financial investors Bain Capital and Carlyle, who have submitted a nearly ten percent lower offer.

The decision lies with Osram board member Olaf Berlien. For the takeover by AMS, Berlien would have to lift an existing Osram standstill agreement beforehand. This was previously agreed for the Austrian company to take a look at the books and prohibited them from making an offer for twelve months.

AMS’s bid expires Thursday. The company already showed interest in Osram in July, but then withdrew due to the financing. Now, however, 4.2 billion euros should be provided by the banks HSBC and UBS. AMS would like to pay part of this amount through a 1.5 billion euro capital increase, which is guaranteed by the banks.

The acquisition is expected to save AMS 240 million euros per year. AMS is particularly interested in Osram’s automotive supplier business. As a result of the merger, the automotive industry would be the largest revenue driver with 45 percent, which would compensate for the strong dependence on major customer Apple.