Baring Asia not in hurry to exit Hexaware Tech

Baring Private Equity Asia, which owns 71 per cent stake in Hexaware Technologies, is not looking to exit the company any time soon, Hexaware’s chief executive officer R Srikrishna told Business Standard.

“Their outlook is very much a long term,” he said. “They have completely bought into this strategy (the new strategy, wherein the company is looking at using automation to cut clients’ cost and help them become digital — the company calls it Shrink IT, Grow Digital).”

The private equity firm came on board in August 2013, when it bought 41.8 per cent stake from the then chairman Atul Nishar and General Atlantic Global Investments. By November 2013, it raised the stake to 71 per cent through an open offer to the shareholders.

There has been speculation about Baring Asia exiting Hexaware since the beginning of this year by selling its entire stake in the company. Srikrishna said the firm had denied it repeatedly.

“This strategy will take a number of years to execute and deliver good results. What will happen years down the line when ownership changes in part depends on what the ownership is. All that is completely theoretical and there is nothing in the near future. In fact, they are very committed, staying in the investment for a long time.” He added: “It is not happening this year and I would be very surprised if they do this in a next few years.”

After Baring came in, Hexaware’s consolidated revenues grew from ~2,285 crore in 2013 to ~3,123.5 crore in 2015.