Infineon to buy International Rectifier for $3 billion in cash

20/08/2014 - 17:18

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German chipmaker Infineon announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to buy U.S.-based International Rectifier for about $3 billion in cash.

The Munich-based group said the purchase price of $40 per share represented a 48 percent premium over the average share price of International Rectifier over the past three months and of 51 percent over Tuesday's closing share price.

Infineon said it would fund the transaction using cash on hand and fully underwritten credit facilities totalling 1.5 billion euros ($2.0 billion).

A person close to the negotiations had told Reuters earlier that Infineon was poised to strike a deal to buy a U.S. chipmaker.

(1 US dollar = 0.7530 euro)

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Victoria Bryan)