TOKYO: Toshiba is considering a buyout offer from a British private equity fund, it said Wednesday, with reports suggesting the deal could be worth about $20 billion.

Trading of Toshiba shares was halted on Tokyo's stock exchange at the open, after the Japanese firm confirmed the offer in a statement.

Toshiba said it "received an initial proposal yesterday" by CVC Capital Partners for a buyout.

"We will request detailed information and carefully discuss" the offer, the firm added.

The Nikkei newspaper said CVC was considering a 30 percent premium over the Japanese industrial group'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 Toshiba's management, which has clashed with shareholders recently, reports said.

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

The two firms are not strangers -- Toshiba's CEO and President Nobuaki Kurumatani was head of CVC's Japanese operations between 2017 and 2018, before he took the top job at the conglomerate.

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