Mar. 26--TOKYO -- Japanese silicon wafer maker Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. and Taiwan's Powertech Technology Inc. are among the five firms planning to help struggling Elpida Memory Inc. raise 45.8 billion yen to shore up its financial base, industry sources said Thursday.

Elpida, the world's third-largest maker of dynamic random access memory chips used in personal computers, said Wednesday it will raise fresh capital by issuing shares in its two recently established subsidiaries to three Japanese and two overseas firms.

The company has been looking to secure new funds as it reels under severe price erosion for chips caused by a supply glut and shrinking demand due to the global economic downturn.

Among the five firms, Taiwan's PTI, a memory backend service provider, said it will invest 5 billion yen in one of the two Elpida subsidiaries.

Shin-Etsu Chemical, a supplier of chip-making materials for Elpida, is expected to invest an unspecified amount, the sources said.

Elpida logged a group net loss of around 118 billion yen for the April to December period last year. It is expected to post a heavy loss for the current business year ending this month, even though the company does not provide earnings projections due to volatility in the DRAM market.

Its share price soared by nearly 18 percent, or the daily limit of 100 yen, to 657 yen in the morning session of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Thursday.

Renesas Technology Corp., another major Japanese computer chip maker, is also looking to raise funds through the help of its shareholders like Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

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