Hitachi plans to raise $4.5 b

The sources, who asked not to be identified said Hitachi plans to sell about 300 billion yen worth of shares and another 100 billion yen in convertible bonds.

The public share offering would be its first in 27 years. Faced with its fourth straight year of losses, Hitachi’s shareholders’ equity ratio has slipped to just below 11 percent, roughly half that of rival NEC Corp, which earlier this month announced it would raise up to $1.5 billion.