Philips Sets Price Range for Lighting IPO
The Netherlands' Philips (PHG) - Get Report on Monday gave the indicative price range for the initial public offering of its lighting business. The sale will consist of 37.5 million shares, or 25% of Philips' stock, with the remainder of the shares to follow over the next several years.
The indicative price range for the offering is between €18.50 ($20.94) and €22.50, putting the market capitalization of the lighting division between €2.78 billion and €3.38 billion. Including debt, the enterprise value would be between €4.32 billion and €4.92 billion, with the upper end of that range still marginally short of recent analysts' valuation predictions.
The shares will be listed on Euronext Amsterdam, with an offering date of Friday, May 27. The final offer price will be confirmed on Thursday, May 26.
Shares will be offered to institutional and retail investors in the Netherlands, and to other qualified institutional investors.
The new company will be known at Philips Lighting. Eric Rondolat, currently chief executive of the lighting operation, will become CEO of the new company.
Philips has been publicly looking for a buyer for its lighting business since 2014 and decided to do an IPO after it failed to secure an offer that matched its own valuation. The LED-focused lighting unit posted Ebitda of €547 million and sales of €7.47 million in 2015.
The company is also trying to sell Lumileds, which supplies lighting components to manufacturers, after U.S. regulators blocked a $3.3 billion sale to a consortium led by GO Scale Capital of China.
