Two lighting companies announced plans over the past month to file initial public offerings (IPO) to help fund their growth in energy-efficient lighting. Novaled AG, Dresden, Germany, a manufacturer of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), and TCP International Holdings Ltd., Shanghai, China, which focuses on compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), are going public.
Novaled was founded in 2001 as a spin-off of the Technical University and the Fraunhofer Institute of Dresden. Novaled has a portfolio of more than 500 patents granted or pending and has sales offices in Korea and Japan. The company had $22.58 million in 2011 sales.
TPC had 2011 sales of $280.9 million, and claims that according to statistics from the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), Rosslyn, Va., it's the largest provider of CFLs in the United States with 32% market share.
TCP also said in its IPO filing to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), “Our key customers in the retail channel include The Home Depot, to which we are the largest energy-efficient bulb supplier in the United States, as well as Homebase and Wal-Mart, which primarily sell our products under private label. Our key customers in the commercial and industrial segment include Consolidated Electrical Distributors, Grainger, HD Supply, Regency and Rexel. We have also established a presence in Asia, Europe and South America, and seek to leverage our strong North American customer and distribution base to facilitate expansion in these attractive global markets.”