(Yicai) Aug. 4 -- Chinese light-emitting diode chipmaker Sanan Optoelectronics has teamed up with a Malaysian partner to jointly acquire Lumileds Holding, a Southeast Asian supplier of mid-to-high-end LED products for USD239 million.

Sanan and Inari Amertron Berhad will set up a joint venture in Hong Kong that will be responsible for buying Lumileds, the Xiamen-based company announced late on Aug. 1. The pair will invest USD280 million in the JV, based on their shareholding ratios of 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

Once the deal is completed, Sanan will own a 75 percent stake in Lumileds, and its partner the rest, the firm added, noting that the JV will use the remaining funds to supplement Lumileds’ working capital.

The acquisition of Lumileds will enable Sanan to expand its product portfolio, obtain high-quality overseas factories, improve its global supply chain layout, quickly integrate into the international high-quality LED supply chain, and expand customer resources by leveraging the target company’s mature overseas sales channels and client network, Sanan pointed out.

“This transaction is the next step of our ongoing transformation,” Steve Barlow, chief executive officer of Lumileds International, said in a statement released by Lumileds on Aug. 1. “As the LED industry evolves and continues to mature, I am confident that Lumileds International will continue to be successful and accelerate its growth under the new ownership.”

Registered in the Netherlands, Lumileds is a global leader in LED technology, innovation, and solutions for the automotive, display, illumination, mobile, and other markets where light sources are essential. It has production bases and teams in Singapore and Malaysia, with businesses in Southeast Asia, Europe, and China, according to Sanan.

Dutch multinational company Royal Philips spun Lumileds off in 2014 and sold a majority stake to US alternative asset manager Apollo Global Management in 2017. Lumileds launched bankruptcy reorganization in 2022 and completed shareholder changes and asset restructuring in October that year. During this process, Lumileds’ production and operation continued normally.

Insufficient resources invested by Lumileds’ old shareholder hindered the company’s business development and performance recovery, Sanan noted. Lumileds had operating revenues of USD589 million and USD141 million and net losses of USD67 million and USD17 million last year and in the first quarter of this year, respectively, according to financial data provided by Sanan.

Sanan’s shares [SHA: 600703] were trading down 0.8 percent at CNY12.58 (USD1.75) as of 10.35 a.m. in Shanghai today. Inari’s stock [KL: 0166] plunged 5.2 percent to MYR2.02 (48 US cents) as of 10.15 a.m.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione