Infineon sees lower 2012 sales as crisis bites

German semi-conductors giant Infineon said Wednesday it expected sales in its current business year to decline by around five percent as customers increasingly hold back in the current economic gloom.

"We expect full-year revenue to be down a mid single digit percentage relative to the 2011 fiscal year," Infineon said in a statement.

Infineon, which runs its business year from October to September, said it was "observing increasing caution on the part of customers."

Taking this into account, "we now expect a sequential revenue decline of about 10 percent for the first quarter of the 2012 fiscal year," it said.

In the final quarter of the year ended September 30, Infineon booked net profit of 125 million euros ($169 million), down 34 percent from the preceding three months, on stable revenues of 1.038 billion euros.

Taking the 12 months to September as a whole, net profit jumped by 69.5 percent to 1.119 billion euros on 21.3-percent increase in revenues to 3.997 billion euros.

"Whilst we are not immune to cycles, we perform well during the current economic slowdown and remain fully confident in the long-term growth and margin prospects of our business," said chief executive Peter Bauer.

(c) 2011 AFP