August 29, 2022
Lumileds Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Company claims "Business as Usual" as it lays out plan to dig out of 10-figure debt
NEW YORK, NY — Lumileds, the Netherlands-based LED maker with approximately 7,000 employees that operate in over 30 countries, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The company’s U.S. business is reportedly its largest country of operation and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
Lumileds is best known in the U.S. lighting industry as the maker of the LUXEON series of LEDs, CoBs and LED modules. The company was formerly owned by lighting industry juggernaut Philips until 2017, when Philips sold an 80.1% stake in its Lumileds business to a group of funds managed by affiliates of New York investment and private equity firm, Apollo Global Management.
Related: Lumileds Plans to Emerge from Chapter 11 in 60 Days »
Concurrent to the Chapter 11 filing, Lumileds filed a proposed 5-year restructuring plan to allow for the company to restructure, repay its creditors and emerge from bankruptcy. In the coming months, the court will review the proposed plan to approve it, deny it or urge the company to revise and refile an amended plan. The only business operations that are part of the bankruptcy proceeding are those in the United States and the Netherlands.
"Business as Usual"
In a statement issued at 1:10am EDT today, Lumileds communicated a “Business as Usual” message explaining its filing of "first day" motions to obtain the requisite court authority for the company to continue operating its businesses and facilities in the ordinary course without disruption to its customers, vendors, suppliers, or employees. As part of these first day motions, Lumileds has sought court approval to continue to pay all valid amounts owed to vendors and suppliers as they come due. In addition, the company expects that employees will continue to receive their usual wages and benefits without interruption.
The restructuring support agreement announced today by Lumileds explains that it intends to work with its lenders holding a significant majority of the loans outstanding under its prepetition first lien debt facility on the terms of a comprehensive financial restructuring that would significantly de-leverage and strengthen its balance sheet by over $1.3 billion, accelerate Lumileds’ growth, and enable further investment in innovation to pursue additional strategic opportunities through the injection of up to $275 million of liquidity.
Related: Lumileds Receives Court Approval of First Day Motions »
Court filings indicate that the company debt is approximately $1.7 billion and has over 1000 creditors. The ten largest unsecured creditors are:
UWV
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
$2,272,184
LBA RVI-COMPANY
IRVINE, CA
$1,772,664
ATOS NEDERLAND B.V.
AMSTELVEEN, NETHERLANDS
$901,971
VERSUM MATERIALS
ALLENTOWN, PA
$658,115
JIANGXI JINGNENG SEMICONDUCTOR CO., LTD.
NANCHANG, CHINA
$597,737
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
REDMOND, WA
$536,548
PACIFIC GAS ELECTRIC
OAKLAND, CA
$498,749
BT AMERICAS INC
DALLAS, TX
$467,615
DXC TECHNOLOGY SERVICES LLC
MC LEAN, VA
$395,219
VALLEN DISTRIBUTION INC
CHARLESTON, SC 29407
$360,609
Disclosure: inside.lighting, LLC expects to be on Lumileds’ list of creditors for an amount of approximately $1,812.
NOTE: This article was updated to correct the total debt and number of creditors.
