Osram gets US & German government nod for lamps unit sale to Chinese group.

Frankfurt Feb 11, a spokesman of German lighting group Osram said the US Commission Foreign Investment in United stats (CFIUS) has approved OSRAM to sell its lighting business to the Chinese bidders. Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs of Germany has approved the transaction in January. The acquisition is only waits for the final approval from the Chinese regulatory.

Headquartered in Munich, Germany, OSRAM is a famous company with more than 110 years of history, its products cover from civilian lighting equipment to infrared and laser and other high-tech lighting equipment, is widely used in virtual reality, automatic driving, smart phones and architecture and smart city and so on .

OSRAM plan to sell Lundvance which is their independent subsidiary, the main products residential lighting, since the midst of 2016, Lundvance has been split from OSRAM, and many Chinese companies have expressed their wise to buy. In the same year on July 26, the board of directors OSRAM decided to sell Lundvance to a consortium of Chinese buyers including IDG Capital Partners and Chinese lighting company MLS Co and financial investor Yiwu State-Owned Assets Operation Center.

OSRAM sell the lamp units to Chinese company and Midea group to take over German robotics firm Kuka, the Chinese enterprises to negotiate German semiconductor company Axitron SE, the three acquisitions in 2016 attracted widespread attention in the media.

Among them, the acquisition of Midea group to merger Kuka to been rejected the person who was the Minister of Economic Affairs in Germany was once considered to be "stranded." But the acquisition finally passed the German inspection in August 2016.

In October, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs unexpectedly withdrew the approval of the bid of Axitron SE and to re-start the inspection In December, when US President Obama took the step of forbidding a foreign company from buying a firm with U.S. assets FGC finally abandoned the bid of Axitron SE.

German Ministry of Economic Affairs declared in the announcement of re-trial Axitron merger case, they will make a further investigate of the purchasing plan of Chinese enterprises to bid Osram.

However on January 30th, the OSRAM spokesman confirmed that the German Ministry of Economic Affairs has approved OSRAM to sell lamps unit to Chinese group.

On Feb11th , the spokesman of OSRAM told 《HANDELSBLATT》that the US Foreign Investment Commission (CFIUS) has also released the acquisition. Analysis that, in theory, only the Chinese regulatory authorities approved, the Chinese consortium can be completed in 2017 fiscal year to complete the acquisition of OSRAM lighting business.

OSRAM is a global innovation and technology leader in the automotive lighting sector. The German 《SPIEGELONLINE》 points out that the sale of its Landers Vance will enable OSRAM to divest its lighting business for terminal customers with € 2 billion sales and 12,500 employees. In the future, OSRAM will leave the traditional light bulbs, halogen lamps and other products, to focus on LED technology and lucrative automotive special lighting.

Chen Engineer who is a engineer of professional connector agents First Green Trading Limited Co., Ltd. pointed out that through M&A, Chinese companies can improve their technological capabilities and to promote the transformation and upgrading of China manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, Chinese company can establish large-scale and distribution network in strategic important markets and regions. At present, Chinese economic growth slow down reach a consensus, due to lagging domestic demand, lack of investment, more and more enterprises encountered development bottlenecks, to expand overseas markets with m & a, to acquire overseas brand, and to the purchase the intellectual property and high Technology, and thus improve their position in the global value chain, all of these are strategic objectives of many enterprise. Moreover, the global economy is weak, asset prices are back to a reasonable level, which constitutes a favorable opportunity. However, Chen Engineer mentioned that Chinese enterprises overseas expansion also a lot of implied problem.