AMS Osram - comment
AMS Osram is targeting approximately €500m of asset disposals as part of its deleveraging strategy. Against this backdrop, it is unsurprising that market speculation has intensified regarding both the assets under consideration and potential buyers. Today, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that Infineon may be interested in the Premstätten site and the associated business. In our view, AMS Osram’s priority is balance sheet deleveraging, and management is therefore likely to be exploring a broad range of strategic options.
Separately, Handelsblatt has also speculated that AMS Osram is considering changes to its pension provisions in order to release additional liquidity. Such a transaction would be similar in structure to a precedent executed by Siemens. However, any pension-related restructuring would be complex, subject to multiple stakeholders, and carries significant uncertainty around both timing and execution.