Austria's AMS to place treasury stock to strengthen investor base

VIENNA, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Sensor maker AMS, preparing for a capital increase to fund the takeover of Osram , plans to place its entire treasury stock prior to the equity issue to strengthen its investor base, it said on Tuesday.

The Swiss-listed group intends to place the 3.35 million shares, worth 134.57 million Swiss francs ($139.09 million) at Monday's closing price, via a private placement at market conditions to selected institutional investors, AMS said.

It has a total number of 84.42 million shares, according to its website.

AMS shareholders approved a 1.7 billion euros capital increase to partly finance the takeover of the much bigger German lighting group on Friday, bringing the Austrian group closer to its goal of forming a European leader in sensors and lights.

AMS, best known for supplying Apple's iPhones with facial recognition technology, secured nearly 60% of Osram's shares last month.

"Under Austrian corporate law, treasury shares are not entitled to subscription rights in the context of a rights issue," the statement said. "As such, the intended transaction is in essence a technical measure to prevent an automatic economic dilution."

The transaction will be executed by UBS and HSBC, which were underwriters of the planned capital increase and, together with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, provide the 4.4 billion euro bridge loan. ($1 = 0.9675 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, editing by Louise Heavens)