Qimonda admin hits Infineon with $2.25 billion demand

LONDON – The insolvency administrator of Qimonda AG, the former DRAM making subsidiary of chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG (Munich, Germany), has filed a request for payment of at least 1.71 billion euro (about $2.25 billion) in a lawsuit pending in a Munich District Court.

The request for payment is in addition to an action for a declaratory judgement in an unspecified amount that was filed in December 2010. That action asserts that Infineon failed to make certain necessary declarations to the German company registrar as it moved assets through shell companies in association with the setting up of Qimonda as a subsidiary company.

Michael Jaffe, the insolvency administrator is alleging that the manner in which Infineon carved out its DRAM business, from a division into a subsidiary and then provided certain resources to that business had an impact on the valuations, which thereby means that Infineon still owes the bankrupt estate these considerable amounts of money.

The insolvency administrator is basing a substantial part the claim on so-called liability for impairment of capital. Jaffe claims that the value of the memory business contributed to Qimonda AG as a non-cash contribution in connection with two capital increases in the spring of 2006 was worth less than the 600 million euro (about $790 million) ascribed to it at the time and was in fact of negative value.

Infineon has reportedly set aside 300 million euro (about $400 million) against any possible liabilities arising from the action, although it continues to maintain that the claims of alleged "economic re-establishment" are unjustified and that the argument run counter to two independent audits, one conducted on behalf of Infineon and one conducted by the court specifically set up to value non-cash contributions.


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