Chinese LED companies accelerate overseas acquisitions, and the lighting industry continues to reshuffle

In recent years, competition in the global lighting industry has become increasingly fierce, and product profit margins have continued to shrink. Many internationally renowned manufacturers have begun to divest their lighting business to varying degrees amid the wave of industry changes. These moves by major international manufacturers have freed up market share and provided development opportunities for powerful domestic manufacturers.

Why do major international lighting manufacturers “leave” one after another?

In the early stages of the development of LED lighting technology, due to high technical barriers and large investment in R&D, international giants with core patents were able to earn considerable profits. However, as technology matures and manufacturing barriers gradually lower, more manufacturers have begun to enter the market, especially Chinese manufacturers, relying on their production capacity, cost and supply chain advantages to expand market share, intensifying competition in the industry.

As a result, the problem of homogenization of general lighting products has become more and more serious, product performance differences have gradually narrowed, and market competition has begun to focus on the price level. For international manufacturers with high operating costs and emphasis on brand value, the profit margins of the general lighting business have gradually shrunk, so they have begun to adjust or divest businesses and focus resources on more profitable products. areas of competence and growth potential.

According to incomplete statistics from LEDinside, international manufacturers such as Royal Philips, OSRAM, Panasonic, GE, Cree, and Toshiba have successively divested their lighting businesses.

Philips spun off its lighting business in 2016 and established an independent listed company, Signify. Since then, Philips has focused on the high-profit medical and health technology field. After independence, Signify can more flexibly participate in market competition and integration. As can be seen from the picture above, Signify has successively acquired the related lighting businesses of ams, Osram and Toshiba.

However, in recent years, the global economic situation has been unstable. In fiscal year 2024 and the first half of fiscal year 2025, Signify's traditional lighting business continued to decline, leading to a decline in overall sales. However, through cost control, debt reduction and business structure optimization, its net profit still maintained growth. In addition, the professional and consumer businesses gradually recovered, providing support for the overall performance.

Similar to Philips, the German company Siemens split its lighting business company "Osram" into independent operations in 2013. Facing fierce competition in the traditional lighting market, Osram split its general lighting business into "LightVance" in 2016 and sold it the following year. Since then, Osram has shifted its business focus to high-tech fields such as automotive lighting and optoelectronic semiconductors.

In 2019, ams initiated the acquisition of Osram. In March 2021, the two parties officially merged into "ams-OSRAM". From 2021 to 2022, ams-Osram successively sold its LED drive power supply, intelligent lighting, plant lighting, automotive lighting, and architectural lighting application businesses, and focused more on the development of core technology fields such as light sources, visualization, and sensing.

Similar strategic adjustments also occurred in General Electric (GE). GE's lighting business originated from the Edison Electric Light Company founded by Thomas Edison and has a history of more than 130 years. However, with the popularization of LED lighting technology and the intensification of market competition, GE's lighting business accounted for a gradual decline in its overall revenue, and it eventually decided to sell it.

In 2018 and 2020, GE sold its Current and consumer lighting businesses, which are engaged in professional lighting business, respectively, bidding farewell to its lighting business with a history of nearly 130 years, and then focusing on high-profit businesses such as aviation, energy and medical care.

In addition, Toshiba Lighting, Cree International manufacturers such as Panasonic and Panasonic are also adjusting or divesting their general lighting business at different stages to concentrate resources on developing core advantages. It can be said that the divestiture of traditional lighting businesses by international manufacturers is one of the choices to achieve strategic transformation by optimizing resource allocation in the context of declining profits and intensified competition.

Chinese lighting companies have started the overseas "buy, buy, buy" model

International manufacturers have gradually withdrawn from the traditional lighting market or disposed of non-core assets in order to optimize resource allocation, leaving market space for Chinese lighting companies. The business adjustments of these international manufacturers have also brought acquisition opportunities to Chinese companies. Some far-sighted and powerful Chinese companies have begun overseas acquisitions.

In the early days, when Chinese companies acquired overseas companies, they valued the company's brand awareness, scale effect and market channel advantages. For example, Mulinsen acquired LEDVANCE in 2017, which owns Osram's general lighting brand and global distribution network. Through this acquisition, Mulinsen not only opened up the international market but also enhanced its brand influence.

In recent years, the overseas acquisition targets of Chinese companies have changed. They have begun to avoid the general lighting market with fierce competition and low profits, and focus on the professional lighting and special lighting fields with high technical barriers, large profit margins and good growth potential.

For example, Sanan Optoelectronics focuses on the field of automotive lighting. On August 1 this year, it announced that it planned to join forces with foreign investor Inari Amertron Berhad to acquire 100% of the equity of Lumileds Holding B.V., a Dutch LED company, with an enterprise value of US$239 million. This acquisition will help expand the high-end international market and enhance its competitiveness in the automotive and special lighting fields.

TrendForce stated that Lumileds plays an important role in the optoelectronics industry, with revenue of approximately US$600 million in 2024. It mainly focuses on automotive lighting (headlights, taillights), mobile phone flashes, and high-end/niche lighting, with production bases and teams located in Europe, China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Lumileds' automotive lighting LED revenue ranks third in the world, second only to ams OSRAM and Nichia; the mobile phone flash part has entered Apple's supply chain, and its revenue ranks only behind Nichia. As for its high-end/niche lighting LED revenue, it ranks seventh in the world and is widely favored by European and American lighting manufacturers.

According to TrendForce’s LED industry demand and supply database, Lumileds is one of the top seven LED packaging manufacturers in the world. This acquisition will help Sanan gain the market position that Lumileds has cultivated for more than 20 years.

Also focusing on the field of automotive lighting is Juguang Technology. Juguang Technology focuses on high-power semiconductor laser components and optical components, and its main layout is in automobiles. automotive applications, semiconductor processes and medical health.

In January 2024, Focuslight Technology acquired SMO, a well-established Swiss micro-nano optical high-tech company, for RMB 586 million. SMO has a mature market layout in the field of automotive projection lighting, and its products have been mass-produced and used in well-known automobile brands. However, Focuslight Technology’s automotive business is still in its infancy, and the acquisition will accelerate its development in the automotive lighting market.

Focuslight Technology also made an acquisition in May 2024, intending to acquire ams-OSRAM passive optical component assets to expand the company's passive optical component technology, acquire wafer-level optics (WLO) module packaging process technology and manufacturing capabilities, accelerate its entry into the fields of consumer electronics and consumer-grade endoscopes, and enhance its market share and competitiveness in automotive projection lighting applications.

The acquisitions of Yiri Technology and Haoyang Shares focus on entertainment lighting and stage lighting respectively.

On May 13 this year, Yiri Technology announced the acquisition of 100% equity in Claypaky, a well-known Italian entertainment lighting brand. Cl aypaky was founded in 1976. Its products are widely used in large-scale performances and sports events. After the acquisition, Yiri Technology will integrate its R&D, manufacturing and supply chain advantages to strengthen its competitiveness in the European market and consolidate its position in the field of high-end professional lighting.

On September 2 last year, Haoyang announced that it planned to acquire the operating assets of Denmark's SGM for 3 million euros and establish a wholly-owned subsidiary. SGM was founded in 1975 and focuses on architectural art lighting and stage performing arts lighting. This acquisition will enrich Haoyang's product categories, expand brands and channels, enhance international market layout and competitiveness, and achieve business complementarity and global development.

In addition to expanding the market, some companies also choose to acquire advanced technologies and product portfolios through acquisitions, and use the international market network and project experience of the acquired companies to accelerate their own business upgrades and global layout.

Guanglin Intelligent LEOTEK, a subsidiary of Liteon, acquired the transportation division of LED lighting manufacturer Dialight in July last year to obtain a mature product line and international customer resources.

Roman shares acquired PREDAPTIVE (and its wholly-owned subsidiary Holovis) in order to obtain Holovis’ technology and project experience in the fields of immersive experience, virtual reality, augmented reality and digital entertainment, and to improve global market service levels by leveraging Holovis’ project delivery capabilities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Abu Dhabi, Japan and other countries.

By acquiring the ams-Osram Lighting Digital Systems Division, Inventronics not only enriches its LED drive power product portfolio, but also leverages the acquired unit’s complete global service network to more efficiently develop overseas markets.

For Chinese companies that have embarked on the overseas "buy, buy, buy" model, the opportunity lies in being able to quickly acquire core technologies, mature international brands and global sales channels with the help of the acquired company. There are also challenges in this process. The integration of the culture, technology, management and channels of both parties will test the company's capital strength, operating wisdom and endurance.

The LED lighting market segment may become a new focus for overseas acquisitions

With the advancement of overseas acquisitions, these actions are not only related to the development of the company itself, but also affect the global lighting market structure. At the same time, the competition between companies has also changed, focusing more on lighting products and technologies with high added value, and launching competition on brand, scale and channels.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the automotive lighting, entertainment lighting, and stage lighting mentioned above, more potential market segments are gradually developing, such as human health lighting, smart lighting, circulating lighting, and plant lighting.

TrendForce's report "2025 Global LED Lighting Market Trends - Data Database and Manufacturer Strategies - 2H25" analysis points out that the order performance of LED high light efficiency, human-centered health lighting, smart lighting and recycling lighting products in the first half of 2025 (1H25) has been very impressive, becoming a key driving force for some terminal lighting manufacturers' revenue contribution and stable market share. At the same time, the specialized plant lighting market has benefited from the continued recovery in energy-saving demand in Europe, which has offset the downward pressure on the market in some regions.
< br /> TrendForce estimates that the global LED smart lighting market will reach US$11.573 billion in 2025, with an annual growth of 19.2%; the LED plant lighting market is expected to reach US$1.366 billion, with an annual growth of 3.9%. The potential of these areas is gradually emerging and is expected to become an important reference direction for overseas mergers and acquisitions of enterprises in the future.

It can also be seen from the recent actions of manufacturers that these areas are becoming the focus of globalization.

Taking Aoyang Shunchang as an example, it announced on August 18 this year that it plans to invest in an LED CSP project in Malaysia. LED CSP chip-scale packaging technology is suitable for scenes with high optical power density, high light efficiency, and long life requirements such as vehicle lighting, outdoor lighting, and intelligent lighting. At this year's Guangya Exhibition, Aoyang Shunchang also displayed a variety of human-centered health lighting and outdoor street lighting products based on CSP technology. By deploying LED CSP production capacity overseas, the company is prepared for future development.

Leyard focuses on smart lighting. On July 22 this year, it announced a partnership with Saudi Arabia Engineering Holding Group (EHG) established Leyard Middle East Company to provide regional customers with solutions such as indoor and outdoor green smart lighting.

In segments such as plant lighting and special lighting, despite the slow overall recovery of the LED lighting market in the first half of 2025, Jinko Electronics relied on its layout in high-potential market segments to achieve high-end lighting business revenue of 340 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.6%, effectively resisting the downward pressure on the industry. In the future, Jinko Electronics will focus on developing products and solutions for outdoor, plant and special lighting applications.

Summary

The market space released by the strategic contraction of major international companies has been filled by Chinese companies. Chinese companies have begun to gain a greater voice on the international stage by virtue of their technological accumulation and capital strength. In the future, with the advancement of integration and the enhancement of corporate international operation capabilities, Chinese LED companies are expected to occupy a more important position in the global high value-added lighting field.