Sistema Financial Corp., a high-technology investment firm from Russia, is interested in acquiring a stake in Infineon Corp., one of the largest semiconductor makers in Europe, according to a media report. The move will help Infineon, who asked for state aid earlier this year and will may help the Russia-based high-tech companies to gain access to the latest know how in microelectronics.

On Friday Dmitry Medvedev, the president of the Russian Federation, and Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, plan to discuss possibilities for Sistema to invest into Infineon, according to a news-report from Kommersant business daily. It is noteworthy that at present Sistema and Infineon do not negotiate directly and are waiting for a political decision by the states.

“Negotiations regarding potential cooperation in the future are held at the highest political level. I know that the German minister of the economy Karl-Theodor Guttenberg is discussing this with his Russian colleague,” media relations director of Infineon is reported to have said.

At present the main topics of the discussions are unclear and it is also uncertain how much money is Sistema willing to invest into troubled Infineon and what stake does it want to acquire. This is not the first time when Sistema shows interest towards Infineon, however, earlier the company said that there were political barriers for investing into the leading maker of semiconductors.

Sistema has interests in many areas of business, including telecommunications, media, entertainment, healthcare, real estate, semiconductors, radar and space, fuel and energy and so on. Sistema owns a major stake in Zelenograd, Russia-based maker of Semiconductors called Sitronics.

Earlier this year it was reported that the Russian ministry of industry and trade considered investment into troubled maker of dynamic random access memory Qimonda, in which Infineon has 77.5% stake. However, no deal has been inked. According to the report citing sources familiar with the matter, the president and the federal chancellor will discuss the fate of Qimonda during the talks.

Tags: Infineon, Sistema, Semiconductor, Business