German industrial giant Siemens AG (IW 1000/34) on Wednesday said it will spin off 80.5% of its lighting unit Osram and proceed with the long-planned stock-market listing of the subsidiary later.
Siemens said its supervisory and managing boards will ask shareholders at the annual meeting on Jan. 23 to approve a "spinoff of 80.5% of Osram activities followed by Osram's public listing."
Under the terms of the transaction, Siemens shareholders would receive one Osram share for every 10 Siemens shares held, the company said in a statement.
Siemens said it would remain a shareholder in Osram.
"Following the spinoff, Siemens AG will, accordingly, hold a 17% stake in Osram, and the Siemens Pension Trust will hold a 2.5% stake," the company said.
Implementation of the spinoff plans would require the approval of at least 75% of shareholders at the annual meeting.
Siemens originally had planned to list Osram late last year in what would have been the biggest German initial public offering in years, but subsequently postponed it due to market volatility.
Earlier this year, finance chief Joe Kaesner flagged "late summer or early autumn" as a possible timeframe for the sale, and in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday, he said Siemens was eyeing a flotation in September or October.
Based in Munich, Osram makes traditional bulbs and high-tech products such as LEDs (light-emitting diodes) and OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes).
Although it is very profitable, Osram -- which employs 40,000 people worldwide -- needs a major infusion of cash to complete the transformation of its operations to LED technology.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
