Osram IPO Planned

For those of you involved in the burgeoning product andsystems design areas involving the use of LEDs, Siemens announced some big newsat Hannover Fair. The company says that it plans to publicly list Osram GmbH inthe fall of 2011. The company is currently a subsidiary of Siemens.

Siemens will retain a minority stake in Osram.

"With the IPO, we want to give Osram completeentrepreneurial freedom to comprehensively further develop its leading competitiveposition in a lighting market being swept by technological changes," said SiemensPresident and CEO Peter Loescher.

Siemens also clearly wants to participate in future growthin the market for new lighting technologies.

Twenty percent of Osram's total revenues are currently derivedfrom its LED products. Overall,energy-efficient products account for 70 percent of Osram revenue. Green lighting in general and LED inparticular are expected to skyrocket in use as prices come down for theseproducts (youcan read more about LEDs increased use by designers here).

Driven by semiconductor-based technologies like LEDs andorganic LEDs, the total lighting market is expected to grow to around 65billion Euros by 2016 -- an increase of 20 billion Euros from today.

With regard to personnel changes around the IPO, WolfgangDehen, currently member of Siemens' managing board and CEO of the EnergySector, has been appointed to head the Osram Executive Board for the IPO. Following the transformation of Osram GmbHinto a publicly listed company, he will serve as its president and CEO.

Martin Goetzeler has resigned his position as CEO of the executiveboard of Osram GmbH and has been appointed COO of Osram. He will continue toperform this function as a member of the Osram managing board after theestablishment of Osram AG.