2nd-quarter Loss Narrows For Germany's Infineon

GEORGE FREY

FRANKFURT (AP) — German computer chip maker Infineon Technologies AG said Thursday that it narrowed its second-quarter loss, but the global economic crisis pushed down sales and the company predicted a full-year operating loss.

Infineon's net loss for the January-March period, its fiscal second quarter, was euro258 million ($343 million), which the company said compared with a loss of nearly euro2 billion a year earlier. That figure was weighed down by charges related to struggling memory chip unit Qimonda AG

Neubiberg-based Infineon, which makes semiconductors and products for computerized systems, said second-quarter sales were down 25 percent to euro747 million from euro1 billion a year earlier. Infineon's fiscal year begins in October.

The company said that, while it expects business to improve in the current quarter, "considerable uncertainties remain for the year."

It said it expected full-year revenues to be 20 percent below 2008 levels, causing operating results "to decrease significantly and be negative."

In 2008, the company had total revenues of euro4.3 billion.