SoftBank Group Corp. is offering to buy Uber Technologies Inc. shares from existing investors at a 30 percent discount on the price at which the ride-hailing company was last valued, according to reports published Monday.

CNBC, quoting a person familiar with the matter, said SoftBank is offering to buy the shares on a valuation of $48 billion versus Uber’s previous valuation of $68.5 billion, looking to acquire up to 17 percent of the company. Bloomberg confirmed the valuation, saying SoftBank and partners including investment firms Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic are offering to spend more than $6 billion in acquiring the equity but said the group is looking to buy “at least 14 percent.”

SoftBank’s investment agreement with Uber was announced earlier this month. The deal was said to include SoftBank, along with Dragoneer, directly investing $1 billion into Uber in return for equity on a $68 billion valuation. And SoftBank would offer $9 billion to acquire equity from existing shareholders “at a lower valuation price to be determined by Softbank next month.”

The low valuation on the offer, expected to be announced formally by SoftBank on Monday, comes as no great surprise given Uber’s near constant woes. The most recent scandal involved Uber covering up a hack of its servers that involved the theft of 57 million customer records in October 2016, complete with a payment to the hackers involved, with the approval of the company’s top executives.

As a consequence of that revelation, the company is also facing probes and legal action in at least four countries on a number of grounds, all of which could end up costing Uber dearly in financial penalties as well as potentially putting its licenses to operate in some jurisdictions at risk.

Whether existing Uber investors will accept the offer on the table is yet to be seen. But with the company now eight years old, some investors may happily accept the offer given that even a lower valuation is still a relatively high price.

Photo: ykjc9/Flickr