about Palm), beleaguered chipmaker Qimonda AG has dodged a bullet with the announcement Sunday that the German state of Saxony, a Portuguese institution and 77.5% shareholder Infineon AG [
] offered a combined €350 million ($487 million) in emergency funding.
The
agreement had boosted the shares of both Qimonda and Infineon by early
afternoon Monday, with the Dresden, Germany-based chipmaker up 76% at
€0.42, giving the group a market value of €143.6 million. Shares in its
Munich parent were up 7.6% at €0.72, putting a €539.8 million price on
the whole company.
Malte Schaumann, an analyst at SES
Research GmbH in Hamburg, Germany, wrote that the package removes the
short-term threat of insolvency for Qimonda, and will allow it to
increase production of its latest "buried worldine" chipmaking
technology, giving Qimonda a competitive advantage and potentially
attracting bid interest.
At the same time, he wrote,
the deal will clear the decks of any bids reliant on buying the company
out of bankruptcy and relieve Infineon of any possible litigation or
regulatory demands for repayment of subsidies.
The
agreement involves a €100 million loan from an unnamed Portuguese bank,
€75 million from Infineon and €125 million from the government of
Saxony. It follows a Dec. 1 warning from Qimonda that it would face
severe liquidity shortfalls in the first quarter of 2009 if discussions
with possible investors failed to translate into a deal.
Qimonda
said Sunday the agreement would also allow it to draw on a €280 million
guarantee from the Federal Republic of Germany and the state of Saxony,
and that it was close to securing €150 million of this amount. -- Jonathan Braude
Continuing the lifeline theme today (see the previous post about Palm), beleaguered chipmaker Qimonda AG has dodged a bullet with the announcement Sunday that the German state of Saxony, a Portuguese institution and 77.5% shareholder Infineon AG [IFX] offered a combined €350 million ($487 million) in emergency funding.
