Siemens buys Siteco to expand in lighting market

FRANKFURT: Siemens, Europe’s biggest engineering conglomerate, said its Osram unit was buying Siteco Lighting GmbH from Barclays Private Equity to tap into growth in the energy-efficient lighting market.

Siemens has been offloading some non-core assets -- such as its stake in defense company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and IT unit SIS -- to focus on three core areas industry, energy and healthcare.

There has been talk that Osram may be on the chopping block as well and could be floated in an initial public offering.

Siteco, whose products light up the Allianz Arena soccer stadium in Munich, Barajas Airport in Madrid and the world’s tallest building in Taiwan, generated about 220 million euros ($302.8 million) in revenues last year.

Siemens did not disclose how much it paid to buy Siteco.