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Toshiba mulls a buyout offer from British private equity fund CVC Capital.

TOKYO: Toshiba Corp said yesterday that it was considering a buyout offer from a British private equity fund with reports suggesting the deal could be worth about $20 billion.

Trading of Toshiba shares was halted on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at the open, after the Japanese company confirmed the offer in a statement.

Toshiba said it received an initial proposal by CVC Capital Partners on Tuesday for a buyout. “We will request detailed information and carefully discuss the offer.’’

The Nikkei newspaper said CVC was considering a 30% premium over Toshiba’s current share price, valuing the deal at nearly 2.3 trillion yen ($20.8 billion) based on Tuesday’s close.

The financial daily said CVC would consider recruiting other investors to participate in the buyout.

CVC declined to comment on the matter.

The proposal would take Toshiba private, with delisting intended to produce faster decision-making by the management, which has clashed with shareholders recently, reports said.

The move, if successful, would allow the company to concentrate resources on renewable energies and other core businesses, the reports added.

The two firms are not strangers — Toshiba’s president and CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani was head of CVC’s Japanese operations between 2017 and 2018, before he took the top job at the company.

And a senior executive at CVC Japan is currently an outside director on Toshiba’s board.

Toshiba has been hit by false accounting scandals and huge losses linked to its US nuclear unit. It was forced to sell its profit-making chip business to make up for huge losses.

Following painful restructuring, its earnings rebounded and the company in January returned to the prestigious first section of the TSE.

The buyout offer sent Toshiba stocks soaring yesterday and they finished up 18.3% at 4,530 yen.