Olympus Corp is considering an equity tie-up with five candidate companies including Japanese electronics makers Sony Corp and Panasonic Corp, as well as South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper said on Thursday.

Olympus is planning to decide on the tie-up as soon as February, the Asahi said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The other candidates are Japan's Terumo Corp and Fujifilm Holdings, the daily said.

(Created by Chikafumi Hodo; Editing by Joseph Radford)

Japan South Korea Manufacturing Samsung