Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s government is in talks with Germany to buy a stake in semiconductor maker Infineon Technologies AG, said AFK Sistema, billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov’s holding company.

The Russian government plans to purchase a stake in Infineon, Sistema Chief Executive Officer Leonic Melamed said at a press conference in Moscow. “Sistema is being invited to participate in this project as an industry professional expert,” he said.

Sistema doesn’t have plans to buy Infineon shares, said Anton Abugov, Sistema’s vice president for strategy and development. “If some options of a possible cooperation with the government are found, we may consider them,” he said.

If Russia were to take a stake in Infineon, Europe’s second-largest maker of chips for cars, electronic devices and passports, it would add to other commercial ties between Germany and Russia. This year, German industrial giant Siemens AG quit a joint venture with French nuclear reactor builder Areva SA to design, build and operate nuclear plants with Russia’s state-run nuclear holding company Rosatom Corp.

Another project is the Nord Stream pipeline connecting Germany and Russia via the Baltic Sea, due to start deliveries in 2011. That project is backed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and chaired by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Cooperation Options

A spokesman in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office referred questions to the Economy Ministry, which said it would look into the matter.

“We are always in talks with companies all over the world about cooperation that might make sense, but there’s nothing concrete related to Sistema at the moment,” Infineon spokesman Kay Laudien said by phone from Munich today. “Everyone knows that there have been some talks on a political level.”

The Kommersant newspaper had reported that Sistema wanted to buy a 20% stake for about 1 billion euros ($1.47 billion) and Russian state development bank VEB might finance the transaction. VEB spokeswoman Ekaterina Karasina declined to comment.

In August, Infineon spokesman Laudien said he was aware of Russia’s interest in some form of cooperation.

Rights Offer

Sistema’s Abugov said Infineon approached Sistema in the spring this year, offering participation in a planned share issue. “Sistema rejected the proposal and passed the information over to the Russian government,” Abugov said. “We are consulting the government on a possible integration of Infineon’s services in Russia.”

In August, Infineon completed a 725 million-euro, 2.15 euros-per-share rights offer. It was underwritten by Apollo Global Management LLC. After announcing the capital increase, the company’s traded shares rose to widen the discount on the stock to 25 percent on the last day of the offer, from an initial 6.8 percent discount. Infineon is spending the proceeds to pay off debt and invest in the business.

Infineon fell 0.3 percent to 3.80 euros at 1:05 p.m in Frankfurt trading, giving the company a market value of 4.13 billion euros.

-- With assistance from Claudia Rach in Berlin. Editors: Robert Valpuesta, Vidya Root.

To contact the reporters on this story: Maria Ermakova in Moscow at mermakova@bloomberg.net; Ragnhild Kjetland in Frankfurt rkjetland@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 17, 2009 07:08 EDT