Japan Industrial Partners-led group looking to buy Toshiba for $19 billion -Kyodo

TOKYO (Reuters) -The consortium of mostly domestic firms led by Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) is looking to buy Toshiba Corp for 2.8 trillion yen ($19.13 billion), Kyodo reported on Wednesday citing unnamed sources.

The group, which includes Chubu Electric Power Co, received the right of first refusal in its bid for the Japanese conglomerate, the Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday.

The reported acquisition price marks a premium of about 26% from Toshiba’s current market value of 2.22 trillion yen.

JIP’s consortium will put up about 1 trillion yen and likely borrow the rest from financial institutions, Kyodo reported. It said the price could still change depending on Toshiba’s share price and valuation premium.

Asked about the report, a Toshiba spokesperson said the company could not comment on candidates as doing so could undermine fair process.

Toshiba said last month it had received multiple in-depth written indications of interest from potential partners in a second bidding round for strategic alternatives.

($1 = 146.3600 yen)

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Mayu SakodaEditing by Chang-Ran Kim)