Toshiba Corp. has selected a group of companies led by a Tokyo-based fund as the preferred bidder for a potential buyout of the Japanese conglomerate, with 2.8 trillion yen ($19.1 billion) seen as the desired purchase price, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The fund, Japan Industrial Partners Inc., has asked several companies, including Chubu Electric Power Co. and Orix Corp., to invest in the effort to rebuild the troubled conglomerate, with the latter set to agree, the sources said.

With an eye to delisting the conglomerate upon a possible buyout, the fund-led group will need to procure several hundred billion yen as a premium on top of Toshiba's market cap of nearly 2.2 trillion yen as of the end of Tuesday.

The group plans to fund roughly half of the purchase with loans from financial institutions.

Potential buyers of the Japanese conglomerate had been narrowed down to two groups of companies by the end of last month -- one led by Japan Industrial Partners and the other led by state-backed fund Japan Investment Corp.

Toshiba said on Sept. 30 that it had received multiple bids for restructuring plans from companies that passed the first round of bidding without detailing the number.

"We do not disclose information about bidders as doing so could disrupt the fair execution of the process," Toshiba said Wednesday.

Japan Industrial Partners will need to secure investments from major Japanese companies that it has called on to participate and loans from financial institutions to raise the remaining funds for the envisaged buyout.

Toshiba does not plan to eliminate the Japan Investment-led group from the process in case talks with Japan Industrial Partners and its allies fall through, the sources said.

Japan Industrial Partners initially teamed up with Japan Investment in the first round of bidding but later terminated the partnership due to differing opinions.

Toshiba's plight began with an accounting scandal in 2015, followed by the 2017 bankruptcy of its U.S. nuclear plant subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co.

A series of management woes have further tarnished its corporate image. In 2021, a shareholder-commissioned inquiry found Toshiba executives had colluded with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in preventing foreign activist shareholders from influencing the board by sending in directors, leading its shareholders to vote out some of the board members at the time.


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