Elpida, Japan's last remaining maker of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), reported an operating loss of 43.8 billion yen ($575 million) in the October-December quarter, compared with a loss of 26.9 billion yen a year earlier.

The company is battling falling prices, a strong yen, and loss of market share to better-funded South Korean rivals Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor.

It gave no full-year forecasts, although public broadcaster NHK reported on Thursday that it was likely to post a 120 billion yen ($1.58 billion) net loss for the year to end-March, worse than an average 110 billion yen net loss forecast in a poll of 17 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The chipmaker is seeking a tie-up with Micron Technology of the United States and Taiwan's Nanya Technology to shore up its balance sheet, media reports have said.

But Elpida President Yukio Sakamoto at a news conference on Thursday stressed the need for his company to be able to go it alone.

"If we can't survive on our own, we can't do a tie-up with someone else," he said.

The company said it was in talks with its banks and the trade ministry on an aid package and believed an agreement was possible by end-March, when it faces key debt repayment deadlines.

It also said it believed it could return to a profit in the next financial year with a rise in cellphone-related demand.

DIM OUTLOOK

But Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management, said investors would remain cautious toward the stock.

"Elpida will remain a difficult company. Potential investors cannot decide whether or not to invest in Elpida until they can see what the market outlook is. And the market outlook is dim."

He was also unimpressed by the company's confidence on an aid deal.

"The situation is still risky. The company will have to rely on short-term financing for a while and it will remain unstable."

Elpida shares rose 4 percent on Thursday to 337 yen, compared with a 0.8 percent rise in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average.

The stock hit a record low of 297 yen in early January as worries mounted about the company's future, but has partly recovered as its prospects of finding an equity partner improved.

Makers of DRAM chips, which are mostly used in personal computers, have been hit by slumping market prices from a weak global economy and falling sales as consumers switch to tablets that use flash memory instead of DRAM chips.

Elpida's 43.8 billion yen operating loss in the October-December quarter compared with an average estimate of a 37.65 billion yen loss in a poll of six analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Elpida, which has repeatedly raised capital to keep pace with its bigger rivals, said it needed to repay 110 billion yen on April 2, but has 50-60 billion yen in cash on hand.

Its lenders have given it until this month to devise a turnaround plan, sources have said.

On Monday, Nanya denied any intention of joining a possible tie-up between Elpida and Micron, following a report last week that Elpida would seek to eventually include Nanya's parent company, Formosa Plastics Group, in the deal.

Micron and Elpida each held around 12 percent of the DRAM market as of the end of the third quarter of 2011, while Nanya had around 4 percent. Samsung dominated the sector with a 45 percent market share, while Hynix held around 20 percent.

($1 = 76.12 Japanese yen)

(Additional reporting by Junko Fujita, Mayumi Negishi and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Richard Pullin)

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