By Nathan Vifflin (Reuters) -Austrian sensor maker ams OSRAM on Wednesday reported first-quarter core earnings ahead of market expectations, and said it is planning to accelerate its cost-cutting
ams OSRAM Surpasses Earnings Forecast, Accelerates Cost Cuts
By Nathan Vifflin
(Reuters) -Austrian sensor maker ams OSRAM on Wednesday reported first-quarter core earnings ahead of market expectations, and said it is planning to accelerate its cost-cutting program to reduce its debt faster.
Its Swiss-listed shares were seen up 7.8% in Julius Baer pre-market trade.
The company also said it is considering "strategic options" for some of its assets that could save it more than 500 million euros ($568.8 million).
"The plan will reduce the leverage ratio below 2, minimize the amount to be refinanced, reduce the interest expense to below 100 million euros annually and thereby strengthen the operating cash flow further," the company said.
Net debt stood at 1.91 billion euros in the first-quarter, rising from 1.85 billion euros last quarter, ams said in the statement.
Vontobel analyst Mark Diethelm said ams is most likely looking at divesting some assets, but is uncertain about what triggered the decision as the company did not downgrade its guidance despite tariff uncertainty over the automotive sector.
One of the world's largest maker of LED semiconductors, reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of 135 million euros in the first three months of the year, saying it "successfully mitigated" the primary costs of U.S. tariffs.
Analysts were expecting EBITDA of 128.9 million euros, according to data compiled by LSEG.
"Our global footprint and customer base enables us to deal with the volatilities of the new tariff regime.” said Aldo Kamper, ams OSRAM's CEO".
Kamper said during ams' fourth-quarter earnings it did not see a meaningful impact from tariffs on its cost base for now, but would be affected if global automotive, smartphone production fell.
($1 = 0.8791 euros)
(Reporting by Nathan Vifflin in Gdansk; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Varun H K and Louise Heavens)
