Infineon expected to report net profits
10 times higher for quarter over l999
MUNICH -- Infineon Technologies AG, which will report fiscal fourth quarter results on Tuesday, is expected to report that net income rose to 359.8 million euros ($311.8 million) from an estimated 36 million euros in the year- ago quarter. That is the median estimate of six analysts polled by Bloomberg News.
Europe's third-largest chip maker wasn't publicly traded in the fourth quarter of 1999 and the former chip division of Siemens AG hasn't disclosed net income and sales figures for that period.
Fourth-quarter sales are expected to have risen 68% to 2.2 billion euros ($1.9 billion) from 1.31 billion euros. Analyst estimates ranged from 1.98 billion euros to 2.3 billion euros. The company is also expected to say that fiscal 2000 net income surged to 923.5 million euros ($803.5 million) from 61 million euros in the previous year, according to the median estimate of eight analysts polled by Bloomberg. Estimates ranged from 837 million euros to 1 billion euros.
Annual sales are expected to have risen 69% to 7.1 billion euros ($6.2 billion) from 4.2 billion. Analyst estimates ranged from 6.8 billion to 7.1 billion.
Infineon's growth was driven by sales of DRAM chips and memory products, analysts said. DRAMs, which are mostly used in PCs, generate about 80% of Infineon's profits. However, DRAM chip prices are down more than 40% from the third quarter, according to analysts.
The Munich chip maker is looking to reduce its dependency on the cyclical DRAM market by developing semiconductors for mobile phones and Internet access. Siemens currently owns 71% of Infineon.
"In Q4, DRAM prices were still high, so they will have great results," one analyst was quoted by Bloomberg. However, he said, "for the market today, the DRAM price is a catastrophe. And we don't see this downward trend changing."' |
