Lumileds CEO Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre and other high ranking company officers spoke to LEDinside recently about the company’s mid power LED strategy following the Go Scale Capital investment in the company at Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) 2015, which took place in Guangzhou, China from June 9-12, 2015.

The company is hoping that Chinese investor Go Scale Capital, which is also a major investor in local Chinese LED companies including Lattice Power, will aid its mid power LED in-house manufacturing strategy.

Having a traditionally strong market position in the high power LED segment, Lumileds is looking forward to balance its die production for mid power LED products between outsourced die and die produces in Lumileds. The company hopes that with the help of its Chinese investors it will be able to further increase its own capacity for mid power die, said Lesaicherre.

Formerly, the LED component business of Dutch lighting giant Philips, Lumileds was integrated with the parent company’s automotive lighting business in September 2014 before becoming a stand-alone company. Chinese investment fund Go Scale Capital emerged as Lumileds new investor in late March 2015, and acquired an 80% stake in the company.

To clarify things, Lumileds CEO Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre stressed that the company has not merged with Go Scale Capital. Even though Lumileds is today “a separate legal entity, in the transition period before closing, the company is still 100% owned by Philips,” said Lesaicherre adding that the company is going through a transitional phase.

Lesaicherre estimated the closure date of Go Scale Capital’s acquisition of Lumileds shares to be reached by the end of July. The company is waiting for anti-trust approval in the U.S, and approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the country’s organization that specializes in reviewing foreign investments.

After the approval process Go Scale Capital will acquire the shares and transfer the funds to Philips.

(Authors: Roger Chu, Director, Research Division, LEDinside and Judy Lin, Chief Editor, LEDinside)