more streamlining is in store for Dutch technology giant Royal Philips Electronics NV. The company affirmed it is looking to sell off more of its remaining stakes in NXP Semiconductors and its LG.Philips LCD joint venture.
Philips currently holds a 19.9% stake in NXP and a 32.9% stake in LG.Philips LCD.
Philips' CFO Pierre-Jean Sivignon confirmed months of rumours by saying that the company would indeed like its stake in LG.Philips LCD to go "below 20%". Philips has been involved in the joint venture since 1999, when it spent US$1.6 billion to buy a 50% share in LG's LCD business.
As for NXP, which had been a fully owned subsidiary of Philips before its private equity-funded spin-off from the company in September 2006, Sivignon said that Philips will be "opportunistic" in regards to a possible sale of its remaining stake. "NXP is not one of our priorities," Sivignon added.
Philips also announced its fiscal Q2 financial results, with net income of US$2.14 billion, more than five times its Q2 2006 income of US$414.4 million, due mostly, Philips said, to its sale in May of US$2.5 billion of its stake in foundry giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) in which it now holds an 8% stake. Philips Q2 sales were US$8.4 billion, down 4.3% year-over-year.