By Makiko Yamazaki, Kane Wu and Ritsuko Shimizu
TOKYO/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Japan Industrial Partners, the popular bidder to purchase out Toshiba Corp, has moved closer to securing financing from banks, three individuals with knowledge of the matter said.
Concrete restructuring steps proposed by JIP have made a bunch of lenders, including Toshiba’s principal banks Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and Mizuho Bank Ltd, more confident in JIP’s post-acquisition plans, said two of the individuals who have direct knowledge of the financing discussions.
JIP, which is planning to form a consortium, is hoping to secure commitments from banks this month for a buyout that may value the commercial conglomerate at around 2.2 trillion yen ($16 billion) including debt, considered one of the people and a fourth source said.
Those two sources cautioned, nevertheless, that how much each bank will tackle within the financing has not been fixed yet and it isn’t clear when that may be finalised, they said.
JIP’s bid has called for Toshiba management to retain their jobs – a proposal which initially made a few of the banks cautious about lending, sources have said.
The brand new restructuring steps proposed by JIP couldn’t be immediately learned.
The sources all declined to be identified because the talks are private.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, the core unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, and Mizuho Bank Ltd, the core unit of Mizuho Financial Group Inc declined to comment.
Toshiba, whose businesses span nuclear power, defence technology and which owns 40% of memory chip maker Kioxia Holdings, also declined to comment.
Orix Corp, chipmaker Rohm Co Ltd and Japan Post Bank Co Ltd are amongst Japanese firms more likely to join JIP in its bid, sources have previously said.
Global private equity firms which have shown interest in joining a Toshiba buyout could also take part in the debt portion of the deal, said a separate person with knowledge of the situation.
One other bidder, the state-backed Japan Investment Corp (JIC), which sources have said could form a consortium with Bain Capital and MBK Partners, has been sidelined, considered one of the people said.
JIC, MBK and Bain declined to comment.
JIP originally teamed up with JIC in a primary round of bidding earlier this yr, but disagreement over whether to maintain Toshiba’s management saw them make separate bids within the second round, Reuters has previously reported.
(Reporting by Kane Wu, Makiko Yamazaki and Ritsuko Shimizu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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