Osram today announced its second quarter earnings for the 2019 fiscal year. During the reporting period, the company’s performance was in line with expectations. The revenue from January to the end of March was 862 million euros, down 13.5% year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was 8.1%. At the end of March, when the preliminary key data was released, OSRAM had predicted that sales in the second quarter would fall by about 15%, and the adjusted EBITDA margin would be in the mid-high single digit range. The financial report data, as predicted at the time, was partly due to the continued weakness in the automotive, general lighting and mobile device markets, which also led to higher inventory levels in the global market, especially in China. In addition, the current global economic slowdown has also brought some pressure on corporate development.
After adjusting for special projects, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was 70 million euros, a 56% decrease from the previous year’s data, while net profit was negative 91 million euros, mainly due to the transformation costs. As announced at the end of March, the OSRAM Management Committee has been responding to the development of the market and plans to save more than 200 million Euros by 2021.
Olaf Berlien, CEO of Osram, said: “We have a history of 113 years and have repeatedly experienced challenges, but after each storm, we have become stronger than ever. Implementing new applications in the LED field is our consistent long-term strategy. Optical semiconductors, automotive and digital businesses will continue to be our focus.”
In the second quarter, sales of the Opto Semiconductors division decreased by 18.8% in a comparable manner. This not only reflects the weakness of the global economy, but also exposes the weakness of the automotive industry and the general lighting market. In Asia, high inventories have further affected revenue figures. Osram’s automotive business unit sales fell 10.6% due to lower expectations in the global automotive industry. In the digital business, sales fell by 8.5% due to weak general lighting and control equipment business.
