PE majors in talks to buy Intelenet
Blackstone wants to leverage the asset with an exit, after buying the back-office services provider from Serco
Two-and-a-half years after it brought back Intelenet Global Services from the UK-headquartered Serco Plc. for $383 million (~25.58 billion), Blackstone once again wants to leverage the asset with an exit.
The private equity major has started the process to sell its stake in the Mumbai-headquartered back-office services provider. Most of the top global private equity firms including Carlyle and Bain Capital are understood to have shown interest to acquire the company which employs around 55,000 people worldwide, with a majority in India.
“The process has started and the top four-five global funds are certainly engaged in the discussion,” a senior industry source privy to the development said.
According to another source, Blackstone wanted the bids to be submitted by February end, but there were procedural delays. “The way it is progressing, it can take multiple shapes. They can either sell the entire company or only the international business while keeping the domestic one, or even there could be two different buyers,” the source added.
One of the reasons why Blackstone may be planning to sell it for the second time is things possibly not playing out according to their expectations, sources said, especially as the team was not the same as the one that they leveraged before it got sold out to Serco. Besides, they may have paid back the debt by now and wants to leverage the investment. “It’s (Intelenet) a solid cash generating company at the end of the day,” said the source mentioned above.
Spokespersons of Intelenet and Blackstone could not be reached for comments despite several attempts.
Intelenet has seen many changes in ownership since it was founded as an equal joint venture between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC) in 2000. After TCS divested its stake in 2004, Barclays Bank Plc., one of its biggest, became the largest investor in the company.
In 2007, the Blackstone Group made an entry as an investor when it supported a management buyout and successfully steered the company to grow until 2011 when Serco bought out Blackstone, coinvestor Barclays and the promoter group for around $634 million, making it one of the largest deals in the domestic business process outsourcing space at that time.