In a transcript of the Jan. 30 post-financial-release conference call on Q4/2011 that Philips executives held with stock analysts, Frans van Houten, Philips' president and CEO, said, "Our focus on LED lighting solutions is consistently delivering good growth. LED sales in Q4 amounted to 18% of total lighting revenues. We do expect improvement of the lighting results to be made towards the second half of 2012."
Later in the phone call, van Houten answered an analyst question about LEDs, saying, "Lumileds, the LED business in the world, so not just Philips' LED business but globally is confronted with overcapacity and we see a number of LED makers from the display and TV area moving onto also Lighting with their mid-power LEDs.
"Overall the glut in the industry pushes down pricing for LEDs and we expect Lumileds to have a difficult first half year with operating margins improving in the second half year as we launch a whole slate of new products.”
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