Toshiba valued at $16 billion by JIP in takeover bid

A consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) is considering a takeover of Toshiba Corp at a valuation of about 2.4 trillion yen ($16.1 billion) in what could be Asia’s biggest buyout this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The JIP-led group, which is the preferred bidder to take the Japanese industrial group private, plans to provide 1 trillion yen in cash, while seeking financing totalling 1.4 trillion yen from banks along with a committed line of credit of 200 billion yen in working capital, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private.

Toshiba, at its regular meeting with banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking on October 20, informed them that JIP is valuating the company at around 2.4 trillion yen and asked them to give financing support, the people said.

Shares of Toshiba have risen about 17% this year, giving the conglomerate a market value of about $15.7 billion. A bid at 2.4 trillion yen would be worth about 5,541 yen per share, according to Bloomberg calculations, similar to Toshiba’s closing price of 5,391 per share on Monday in Tokyo. Bloomberg