Apollo Global Management Inc. is set to lose control of the former Philips lighting business it acquired in 2017. But in the easy money years leading up to Lumileds Holding BV’s bankruptcy filing this week, the buyout firm reaped a more than $500 million dividend bounty, Bloomberg News reported. The debt-laden lighting company gave out about $525 million in dividend payments to Apollo in 2017 and 2018. The payouts were largely financed by new debt that Lumileds raised in the leveraged loan market, according to previous Bloomberg reporting and came less than 18 months after Apollo sold a $1.15 billion loan to help fund its purchase of an 80% stake in the business. Previous owner Koninklijke Philips NV retained about 20%. Lumileds, which supplies energy-efficient LED lighting for automotive displays, succumbed to its $1.7 billion debt load after a sharp decline in demand during COVID-19 and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. Its proposed restructuring plan would slash that debt pile by $1.3 billion and force Apollo to relinquish control of the company to existing lenders.
