Olympus approaches five companies for equity tie-up

Scandal-hit Olympus Corp is considering an equity tie-up with five companies and will select the tie-up partner by February, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper today reported.

The companies include Japan's Sony Corp, Panasonic Corp, Fujifilm Holdings and Terumo Corp and South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

Olympus will seek shareholders' approval at a meeting in March or April, but the paper did not clarify whether Olympus plans to select a single or several partners.

Olympus has already approached a securities company to underwrite the deal, which has contacted all the five potential tie-up partners, the report said.

Responding to the report, the stricken camera and endoscope maker said in a statement today that the company "is considering all kinds of options, but nothing specific has been decided at this point."

Panasonic's president Fumio Ohtsubo said his company has no intention to invest in Olympus at the moment, while Sony said it would be inappropriate to comment at present.