Osram Licht AG formally splits from Siemens to become a pure-play lighting company with 80% of the shares initially owned by current Siemens shareholders.
Osram Licht AG announced on Friday, July 5, 2013 that its spinoff from Siemens was formally effective, with the new company launching as a pure-play lighting company. Moreover, the company announced that its shares commenced public trading on Monday, July 8 on the Frankfurt and Munich Stock Exchanges with the stock ticker symbol OSR.
Siemens allocated 80.5 % of the Osram shares to existing Siemens shareholders at a ratio of 10:1. Siemens has retained 17% of the shares directly, and another 2.5% were placed in the Siemens Pension Trust. Osram said that at the start of trading, more than 700,000 investors held a position in the company.
Osram executives have been visiting capital markets around the globe in preparation for the spinoff. CEO Wolfgang Dehen said, "Today's listing marks the beginning of a new chapter in the company's more than 100-year history and presents great opportunities for the company's future development."
Originally, Siemens planned to launch Osram as an independent public company via an IPO back in 2011. But unfavorable financial markets delayed that action and last fall Siemens announced the spinout plan.
The Osram stock opened at EUR 24.00 per share. Over the initial eight hours of trading the share price remained between EUR 23.00–2400.
Osram said at launch that it is the second largest lighting company in the world. The company also includes the Osram Opto Semiconductor operation that makes LEDs. The company employs 39,000 globally and had EUR 5.4 billion revenue in the 2012 fiscal year ended last September.
