Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) is prepping its legacy lighting business for sale, according to a Reuters report. The company is looking to off load the biz so it can up its game in the healthcare market.
The sale is major for the company, as Philips lighting arm is the world’s largest maker of lights. The firm has not yet decided if it will seek to list the division on the stock exchange or sell it outright, but this month asked for tentative bids.
The lighting business is valued at roughly $4.4 to $6.5 billion (EU €4-6 million), according to the report, and Philips hopes to have bids in for it by the end of this month.
Over the last fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, Philips lighting reported sales of approximately $7.8 billion (EU €7.2 billion), with an estimated EBITA of $687 million, according to the report.
Bids are expected from a consortium made up of buyout groups KKR, CVC and Onex, as well as Bain, Apollo, Blackstone and Chinese bidders, with a possible interest from U.S.-based Acuity.
In September, Philips noted that it was on track to spin off its lighting division as it forecast “modest” sales growth for 2016.
“Macroeconomic risks are increasing and as a result we expect modest sales growth in 2016,” CEO Frans van Houten said.
The move is a shift for the company as it ups its bet on the healthcare market. The Dutch conglomerate is increasingly looking to the digital health market.
Last year it announced an mHealth incubator based in Eindhoven, Denmark, called HealthSuite Labs. Philips said it collaborated with Netherlands-based Radboud University medical center to produce a digital application designed to collect and share data from patients with Type I diabetes.
The market for healthcare technology is worth about $158 billion (€140 billion), van Houten said.
Material from Reuters was used in this report.