Sistema may partner Russian govt in Infineon buy

MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Russian holding company Sistema is in talks over becoming a partner in the Russian state's possible acquisition of a stake in Germany's largest chip maker, Infineon, Sistema's president said.

Russia wants to diversify its economy away from natural resources, and high technology is one of its priorities. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in the summer the state was considering investment in Infineon.

For its part, telecoms-to-oil conglomerate Sistema said in September it had considered buying into Infineon's additional share issue but had decided against it, and was no longer planning to buy its assets.

But Sistema president Leonid Melamed told Kommersant business daily in an interview on Tuesday his company was still in talks over Infineon 'as a potential partner of the state, which has industrial expertise'.

'Will (Sistema's IT subsidiary) Sitronics invest itself? Today I would not give a definitive negative reply, but we understand that in any case, if the project is realised, the state will take on the main share of investments,' he said.

He declined to say what size stake was being discussed.

Melamed also said Sistema had no plan to sell its remaining stake in developer Sistema-Hals despite ceding control to bank VTB and it would be interested in taking part in future privatisations in the telecoms sector.

(Writing by Toni Vorobyova; Editing by Dan Lalor) Keywords: SISTEMA/INFINEON ([e-mail]; Tel: [phone], Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.