BARING ASIA EYES ₹2,000 CR PART EXIT FROM CMS

MUMBAI: Baring Private Equity Asia is preparing to list CMS Info Systems Ltd, India’s largest cash management company, through an initial share sale estimated at about ₹1,500 crore to ₹2,000 crore, said three people aware of the development.

The private equity firm will look to exploit a runaway rally in domestic stock markets this year to profit from its 2015 purchase of the Mumbai-based company, the people said, requesting anonymity. CMS Info Systems is wholly-owned portfolio company of Baring.

The proposed offering will solely comprise a secondary sale of shares by Baring, the people cited above said, adding the offer size has still to be finalized and may be increased depending on market conditions.

Headquartered in Mumbai, CMS is India’s largest cash management services provider. For over a decade the company has been owned by private equity investors, first by Blackstone, which acquired a controlling stake in the company in 2008 and later by Baring, which bought the company in 2015 for around ₹2,000 crore. CMS is involved in ATM and cash management, ATM installation, maintenance services and card personalisation services.

This is the second time Baring is attempting to take the company public. In 2017, the company had filed its draft prospectus with the markets regulator but it let its approval period lapse. “Work on the draft prospectus is in the final stages and the DRHP should be filed in the first half of August. The company has enough reserves to meet its growth plans and thus the IPO is only going to be an offer for sale to return money to its investors. In fact, at the current size that they are looking at, they will be returning the entire amount they spent,” said the first person cited above.