Nanya Executive: Considering Stake Sale In Inotera To Micron

Nanya Technology Corp. (2408.TW) is considering the sale of a stake in its chip joint venture with Qimonda AG (QI) to Micron Technology Inc. (MU), a Nanya executive said Thursday.

Qimonda and Nanya each own 35% in Inotera Memories Inc. (3474.TW), which makes dynamic random access memory chips widely used in personal computers.

Nanya won't divest its current stake, but is considering a sale to Micron if it ends up acquiring Qimonda's 35% stake in Inotera, Nanya Senior Vice President Moor Chen said.

He said talks with Qimonda are continuing about a share disposal in Inotera.

"It's one of the options," Chen said, declining to comment on whether Nanya and Micron have engaged in talks about a deal.

Inotera President Charles Kau declined to comment only to say he hopes a deal will be concluded by the company's annual shareholders' meeting slated for June 26.

Officials at Qimonda and Micron declined to comment.

Nanya, Taiwan's second-largest memory chip maker by revenue after Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., and German chip maker Qimonda have been in talks about their share disposal in Inotera after Nanya agreed to form a 50-50 joint-venture with Boise, Idaho-based Micron early March.

Last month, Nanya and Micron finalized their joint venture deal by agreeing to invest US$550 million each.

Under a previous agreement reached between Nanya and Qimonda, each party has the priority to buy out one another's stake should one party decide to sell.

"We hope to conclude the deal soon so that we can apply Micron's (chip making) technology to Inotera instead of using Qimonda's," Chen said.

Lazard Capital Markets LLC analyst Daniel Amir said Tuesday in a report that Micron is "highly likely" to purchase Qimonda's stake in Inotera for about US$1 billion.