Infineon eyes China expansion

 Infineon AG announced another reshuffle of its structure and management help it tap into growth in China.

to make it less vulnerable to

economic downturns and

The firm is splitting its Industrial & Multimarket business -- one of its three core divisions -- into two new segments and was promoting IMM's head to the management board, expanding its executive team to four people.

Arunjai Mittal, a 40-year-old who is not related to the steel magnate behind ArcelorMittal, will join the board on Jan. 1 to oversee sales and corporate strategy. He is expected to drive the company's expansion in Asia, especially China, Infineon said.

Infineon already generated almost half of group revenue in Asia-Pacific in the first nine months of its fiscal year.

"The challenges are in Asia and in new partnership models there. There is a big internal market there that we cannot ignore," said Chief Executive Peter Bauer.

It is splitting IMM into one business focusing on industrial electronics, such as chips used in wind power plants, and one dealing with power supply for consumer goods such as television sets, mobile phones or computer servers.

He said both of the new business segments could post annual growth rates of more than 10 percent and that the costs of reshuffling Infineon's structure were negligible.

The full story is available at Reuters.