Antitrust Gridlock Hits Ams Osram: Shares Slide 6.4% as Infineon Deal Stalls — Debt Refinancing Progress Softens the Blow

The rally that lifted Ams Osram’s stock more than 130% since January hit a pothole on Thursday as the company’s shares tumbled 6.4% to €19.85, giving back some of the prior day’s close at €21.20. The trigger was not a profit warning or a product failure but a familiar bottleneck: the Bundeskartellamt in Bonn has yet to sign off on the planned sale of the non-optical sensor business to Infineon.

The antitrust review, launched on 3 March 2026, is expected to conclude within the current quarter. The €570 million all-cash deal would shave Ams Osram’s leverage ratio from 3.3 to roughly 2.5, a meaningful reduction for a company that has spent years labouring under a heavy debt load.

While investors wait for Bonn’s green light, Ams Osram has been quietly reshaping its liability structure. A €1 billion bond carrying a 7.25% coupon and maturing in May 2032 was issued to retire a dollar-denominated note yielding 12.25%, saving around €40 million in annual interest. An additional €700 million in euro-denominated bonds has been placed. The broader target: slash total financing costs from as much as €300 million per year to under €150 million by 2028.

The balance-sheet overhaul extends beyond refinancing. Ams Osram is selling its CMOS image sensor unit to indie Semiconductor for €40 million, with €35 million in cash and a €5 million seller loan maturing in two years. The transaction is expected to close within six months. Combined with the Infineon sale, management anticipates roughly €670 million in total proceeds from ongoing divestments.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Ams Osram?

The operational picture, meanwhile, remains solid. First-quarter 2026 revenue reached €796 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 16.5%. The core semiconductor business grew 9% year-on-year, and free cash flow swung to a positive €37 million from a negative €28 million a year earlier. Looking ahead, management guided for second-quarter revenue of €725 million to €825 million and an EBITDA margin of about 15.5%, plus or minus 1.5 percentage points. Full-year free cash flow is still seen above €300 million, boosted by one-off gains from asset sales.

Yet the company’s most ambitious growth bet — photonic chip-to-chip connections for AI data centres — will take time to materialise. Ams Osram has struck a development pact for micro-emitter arrays aimed at improving energy efficiency in high-performance computing. Chief Financial Officer Rainer Irle pegs the revenue opportunity in the high three-digit million range, but not before 2030. Analysts at Zürcher Kantonalbank warned that investors should brace for turbulence: big AI-related revenues are years away, and any setback along the way could trigger sharp corrections.

Despite Thursday’s setback, Ams Osram shares remain roughly 134% in the black since the start of the year. The next concrete catalyst — a verdict on the Infineon sale from the Bundeskartellamt — is likely to determine whether that rally can regain momentum or takes another leg lower.