A German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is reporting that a group of investors plan to challenge Siemens' move to spin off its division Osram. Nine unidentified investors plan to file a lawsuit which could lead to a delay in the listing of Osram.
The nine investors claim that Siemens did not conduct the shareholder meeting properly because of acoustics problems, as Chief Financial Officer Joe Kaeser partly spoke in an inaudible manner.
Osram generates annual sales of about 5 billion euros and has about 39,000 employees worldwide. Shareholders agreed at a meeting on January 23 to spin off 80.5% of Osram, which has a book value of 2.3 billion euros. Siemens investors would receive one Osram share for each 10 Siemens shares they hold.
-tk-