Clifford Chance has advised the Chinese lighting company M.L.S. Electronics Co., LTD (MLS) on the acquisition of OSRAM's business unit Lamps known as LEDVANCE. MLS is part of a Chinese consortium whose other members are the investors IDG Capital Partners (IDG) and Yiwu. The purchase price amounts to more than €400 million. The consortium will finance the purchase price on an all equity-financed basis. The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions and regulatory approval by the relevant authorities. The transaction is expected to close in the course of fiscal year 2017. Based on an agreement with OSRAM, LEDVANCE will continue to use the OSRAM and SYLVANIA brand names at the product level.
MLS is the leading producer of packaged LEDs and components in China with a monthly production capacity of 45 billion units. The company, with headquarters in Zhongshan, China and founded in 1997, has approximately 12,500 employees and an annual revenue of about €525. MLS is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange. The Chairman Sun Qinghuan owns the majority stake in MLS with 67.3%. MLS has a market capitalization of approximately €2.6 billion.
LEDVANCE GmbH is a fully-owned subsidiary of OSRAM GmbH and is one of the world's leading providers of lamps for professional users and retail customers. The company offers advanced LED lamps as well as a wide range of traditional light sources, standardized luminaires and connected lighting solutions. LEDVANCE is active in more than 120 countries and had approximately 8,800 employees as of 1 July 2016. In the 2015 fiscal year general lighting amounted to around 40 percent of OSRAM's turnover or approximately €2 billion.
The Clifford Chance team was led by partner Dr. Stefanie Tetz and coordinated by counsel Gwendolyn Antonia Müller, supported by associate David Schwenneker, transaction lawyer Caroline Lutz, counsel Anne Britta Haas and associate Dr. Andrea Köhler (all Corporate, Munich), partner Dr. Claudia Milbradt, senior associate Anja Schwarz, senior associate Diana Baer (all IP, Düsseldorf), partner Dr. Stefan Simon (Frankfurt), senior associate Dr. Philipp Schäuble (Munich, both Employment Law), partner Dr. David Elshorst, senior associate Amrei Fuder (both Real Estate, Frankfurt), partner Thorsten Sauerhering, senior associate Dr. Dominik Engl (both Tax, Frankfurt) as well as partner Marc Besen (Brussels/Düsseldorf), senior associate Dr. Dimitri Slobodenjuk, senior associate Dr. Florian Wiesner and associate Ulrich Pfeffer (all Antitrust, Düsseldorf).
The Clifford Chance offices in China (partner Amy Ho, Corporate, Hong Kong, associate Richard Cui, Corporate, Shanghai), New York, Washington D.C., Milan, Rome, Paris and Moscow have also been involved in the transaction.
