Hitachi, M'bishi Electric to inject 54 bil. yen into Renesas

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TOKYO, March 20 Kyodo -
The two parent companies of major chipmaker Renesas Technology Corp. -- Hitachi
Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. -- have decided to inject a combined 54
billion yen in fresh capital into Renesas to revive its financial health,
informed sources said Friday.
Hitachi will likely put up 55 percent of the fresh capital and Mitsubishi the
remainder in line with their equity stakes in Renesas, the sources said.
Renesas, a leading supplier of semiconductor chips to control automobiles and
home electronics appliances, is expected to incur a group net loss of nearly
200 billion yen in the year to March 31 amid the global economic woes.
Renesas trails Toshiba Corp. in Japan in terms of the scale of its
semiconductor business.
Renesas and other chipmakers have been badly hit by falling prices for memory
chips for use in devices such as cellphones and personal computers, and have
also suffered due to plunging demand from large-lot microchip users like
automakers.
As a result, Renesas and other chipmakers are set to incur large losses in the
business year ending later this month.
The chipmakers have been seeking to improve their financial profiles with
Elpida Memory Inc., one of Renesas' major Japanese rivals, pleading with its
business allies for 40 billion to 45 billion yen in fresh capital earlier this
year.
==Kyodo
2009-03-20 21:18:44