Dutch electronics giant Philips is to keep a ‘substantial’ stake in its American Lumileds lighting subsidiary which it put up for sale this summer, the Financieele Dagblad says on Thursday.

In addition, the company will place ‘sharp demands’ on its new owner in terms of its capitalisation, the paper says. The FD bases its claims on sources ‘familiar with the situation’.

Philips is shifting from lighting to specialist medical equipment and on Wednesday announced the takeover of US catheter developer Volcano for €1bn.

Nevertheless, the sources say Philips will keep between 40% and 60% of Lumileds and wants to insure the company remains strongly capitalised after the takeover.

This may be connected to the company’s experiences following the sale of chip maker NXP to private equity companies in 2006, the FD says. Philips remained 20% owner but witnessed NXP’s struggles with its debt in the following years.