Qimonda Richmond seeks court nod to sell $40.5 mln assets

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Qimonda Richmond, the U.S. unit of Germany's insolvent memory chip maker Qimonda AG, has sought bankruptcy court approval to sell an additional $40.5 million worth of assets.

In court papers filed on Monday, the company said Texas Instruments Inc had agreed to buy certain tools, spare parts and diagnostic equipment for $20.7 million at Qimonda's Sandston, Virginia plant.

TI, which bought majority of Qimonda's equipment last August for $172.5 million, will be the stalking horse bidder for the remaining equipment and set the floor at a court supervised auction.

Richmond Semiconductor LLC has agreed to buy Qimonda's 1,364,343 square foot manufacturing facility in Sandston for $12 million while Global Alliance Tech Ltd has agreed to buy certain machinery for $7.8 million, the filing said.

Qimonda's German parent filed for insolvency last January as a result of huge industry price drops and a global financing squeeze.

Qimonda Richmond filed for protection from creditors in the U.S. last February along with another unit, Qimonda North America.

The company was the world's fourth-biggest maker of the DRAM memory chips that are used mainly in PCs.

The case is In re Qimonda Richmond LLC, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 09-10589.

(Reporting by Santosh Nadgir in Bangalore; Saumyadeb Chakrabarty) Keywords: QIMONDA/ ([e-mail]; within U.S [phone]; Outside U.S [phone]; Reuters messaging: [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. 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.