Siemens sells last 18% stake in Infineon

Siemens has sold its remaining 18 per cent stake in Infineon Technologies for Rs.6,195 crore ($1.4 billion) in a placement managed by Goldman Sachs.

The German conglomerate has been gradually reducing its shareholding in Infineon since spinning off the chipmaker in an initial public offering in 2000, at the height of the technology bubble. It sold a majority stake in Infineon in late 2001 and divested another big stake in January 2004.

Goldman Sachs placed the shares after Infineon stock rose above Rs.486.75 ($11) to levels last seen in November 2004. The chip maker's stock price doubled on its first day of trading to Rs.3,717 ($84) but since then it has steadily fallen after the sector hit a downturn from which it has never really recovered.

Infineon said last November it plans to separate its memory business from its logic business and then float the memory business off by way of an offering of shares. It would then focus on its logic division, continuing to target the automotive, industrial electronics and communications sectors.

Siemens' last remaining major involvement in electronic components is a 12.5 per cent stake in electronic components group Epcos which emerged from a Siemens joint venture it founded with Japan's Matsushita.

- John Walko
EE Times