Earlier, Japan's Toshiba Corporation announced its new restructuring plan, which will accelerate the divestiture of non-core assets, consider the divestiture of the elevator business and the lighting business in April this year, and plan to start the sale procedure of the elevator and lighting business. The proceeds from the sale will be used to invest in the core business or returned to shareholders.
Recently, ams OSRAM announced that it intends to sell German Automotive Lighting Systems GmbH (AMLS, Automo-tive Lighting Systems GmbH) to Plastic Omnium, a French auto parts supplier, for 65 million euros (equivalent to approximately RMB 454 million).
After contacting a group of early LED lighting multinational leading companies such as ams OSRAM, GE, and Panasonic, they have frequently divested their lighting business in recent years, and the momentum of LED lighting Chinese companies' "one dominance" has undoubtedly been revealed.
LED lighting international manufacturers have left
In fact, in recent years, it has become commonplace in the industry for international manufacturers to integrate lighting business and optimize product structure. Philips, General Electric (GE), Cree (Cree), ams OSRAM, Nippon Electric Co., Ltd. (NEC), Acuity Brands, Panasonic, etc. have all divested the lighting business to varying degrees, changing the pattern of the lighting industry.
Philips Lighting
In order to adapt to the changing global market situation, Philips, an international lighting brand, has officially started the process of selling and divesting its lighting business since 2014.
In July 2014, Philips announced that it would integrate Lumileds and the Automotive Lighting Division to form an independent company, Lumileds, which was sold to the US private equity fund Apollo in December 2016.
In 2016, Philips formed its LED and general lighting business into an independently operated subsidiary "Philips Lighting" and went public, now renamed "Signify".
In 2018, Philips sold its wholly-owned subsidiary Philips Photonics to Trumpf, marking a more complete abandonment of the lighting business.
Osram
Following the example of Philips, Osram has also begun to "spin off" part of its lighting business.
At the end of November 2012, Siemens announced that it would spin off the Osram lighting business and go public independently, mainly including four major businesses, LED chips, automotive lighting and other special lighting, lighting solutions and systems, and light sources.
In 2017, Osram sold its general lighting business, LEDVANCE, to the joint bidder of Mulinsen for over 400 million euros.
In 2019, Osram announced that it had found a buyer for its brand Sylvania Lighting Solutions (Sylvania Lighting Solutions) group. The acquirer was WESCO International Co., Ltd. NYSE: WCC (WESCO International, Inc).
GE
As a pioneer in the global lighting industry, GE Lighting was once listed as "the world's three major lighting giants" together with Philips and Osram. Beginning in 2016, GE began to gradually shrink the lighting business front:
On November 30, 2016, GE announced the termination of all direct business activities in Asia and Latin America, namely the withdrawal of the Asian and Latin American markets.
On June 9, 2017, GE officially announced the sale of its lighting business.
At the end of August 2017, GE began to close its lighting factories in Lexington and Somerset in the United States. The main business of these two factories is traditional lighting products.
In early February 2018, GE announced that it had agreed to sell GE Lighting's operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, as well as its global automotive lighting business, to a company controlled by its former executive Joerg Bauer.
In mid-February 2018, GE agreed to sell the European part of its overseas lighting business.
On November 6, 2018, GE's Current was sold to private equity firm American Industrial Partners (AIP).
In May 2020, GE announced the sale of its lighting business, a consumer-focused home lighting business, to Savant Systems, Inc., an industry leader in the professional smart home space.
The move marks GE's bid farewell to the nearly 130-year-old lighting business.
Cree
On March 15, 2019, Cree announced that it would sell its LED lighting division (Cree Lighting) to Ideal Industries of the United States for US$310 million. Cree sells businesses including LED lighting fixtures for commercial use and enterprise lighting solutions.
Through this business divestiture, Cree continues to focus on the compound semiconductor RF and power application market to meet the market demands of 5G communications and new energy vehicles.
NEC
In 1952, NEC has been involved in the field of lighting. As of 2018, NEC's lighting business has a history of more than 60 years. Due to the fierce competition in LED lighting, the lighting business has been losing money every year, and NEC has almost always been in deficit in this field for the past 10 years.
In April 2019, NEC transferred its wholly-owned subsidiary NEC Lighting, which is engaged in the lighting business, to a new company fully invested by Japan Mirai Capital Corporation. The newly established company will continue to use NEC's signboard. In exchange, NEC will receive a 5% stake in the new company.
Acuity Brands
In October 2018, Atlanta-based LED and IoT lighting specialist Acuity Brands sold its $23 million Spanish lighting company Carandini. According to foreign media, LEDS C4, a leading Spanish lighting company, has acquired Carandini through Acuity.
Acuity owns more than ten lighting brands, including Holophane, Peerless, Lithonia, Carandini, etc. Like many lighting companies such as Signify and Osram, Acuity is looking to move from a lighting business to an Internet of Things (IoT)-driven business.
Why do major international manufacturers "leave" one after another?
First of all, the profit margin of LED lighting continues to decline. At present, the cost of LED lighting has dropped by more than 90%, and the luminous efficiency has increased by 30 times, making the performance and cost of LEDs fully meet the lighting needs, and the penetration rate in the alternative light source market is close to 50%. It is no exaggeration to say that LED lighting has turned from a highland of technological competition to a mature general commodity.
In addition, China's LED lighting companies continue to rise, and the market competition is under great pressure. China has the world's largest LED lighting production and application market. Due to the advantages of low cost and high efficiency, a large number of Chinese enterprises can launch new products faster, with prices closer to ordinary consumers, and export to various regions of the world.
Coupled with the strong power of China's capital market, China's LED companies will quickly squeeze the global market share through mergers and acquisitions, and form a competitive ability with traditional multinational giants.
Throughout the world, China has become the world's largest LED industry base, and a large number of Chinese companies such as Sanan Optoelectronics, Huacan Optoelectronics, Mulinsen, Hongli Zhihui, Guoxing Optoelectronics, Op Lighting, Foshan Lighting, Sanxiong Aurora have devoured them. Most of the market share of international LED companies.
Enlightenment from the departure of international manufacturers
The transfer of LED lighting to China also indicates the intensification of domestic competition. In this context, domestic enterprises should focus on exploring market segments and avoid homogeneous competition.
Focus on subdivided product innovation and quality improvement. While expanding the indoor and outdoor general LED lighting market, domestic LED lighting companies should further identify the development of different sub-application fields such as commercial lighting, landscape lighting, track lighting, special lighting, smart lighting, plant lighting, automotive lighting, and UV LED. In the direction of development, large, medium and low power LED lighting products are developed for different application needs.
Strengthen technological upgrading and promote the transformation of low-end production capacity to mid-to-high-end production capacity. LED lighting companies should focus on improving product quality. Europe and the United States have strict requirements on the performance indicators of LED products. By improving product quality, the scale of export of enterprises can be expanded.
At the same time, LED lighting companies should also seize the opportunity of integration to reserve core intellectual property rights. International companies can sell or spin off their lighting business, providing opportunities for domestic companies to make international mergers and acquisitions. In the process of mergers and acquisitions, domestic companies can obtain a wealth of LED patent technologies.
Previously, Philips' lighting business was acquired by China and obtained more than 600 patents related to LED production and automotive lighting, which provided an important foundation for domestic enterprises to enhance intellectual property reserves and strengthen technology research and development.
