Philips to Air Plans for Lighting IPO at Annual Meeting

Royal Philips, Eindhoven, Netherlands, told shareholders it plans to discuss prospects for a move to separate itself from its legacy lighting business via an initial public offering at its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on May 7.

The company said it will continue to review other options, such as a private sale, but the agenda item will be detailed in a letter to shareholders slated to be sent before March 26.

“In view of the sharpening of Philips’ strategic focus announced on September 23, 2014, the voting items on the AGM agenda include the separation of the Lighting business from Royal Philips. It is the current intention to effectuate the separation of the Lighting business through an Initial Public Offering, but other options will continue to be reviewed,” Philips said in a release announcing the agenda for its annual meeting.

Separately, the website +Plastic Electronics is reporting that Philips plans to sell its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) business, which operates under the brand Lumiblade, as part of Philips’ ongoing restructuring. 

The move to take Philips Lighting public will concentrate Philips’ business interests predominantly the health care market. The company separated lighting from health care in a move announced in October 2014.

At that time, Philips said its Philips’ Lighting Solutions business, already one of the global leaders in lighting as a €7 billion company serving a growing market estimated to exceed €60 billion (approximately $77.1 billion) total, would be “better positioned to capitalize on the fundamental changes taking place in the lighting industry, in which the value is shifting from individual products to systems and services.”

Prior to that, Philips spun off its LumiLEDs LED components business and automotive lighting into a separate company. Philips retained a majority stake in the business, but plans to sell off that stake by the end of March, according to a Bloomberg report.