Mphasis looks to chase cos from Blackstone's portfolio

Mphasis Ltd plans to aggressively mine private equity firm Blackstone's portfolio of companies, and is assembling a dedicated team for the same, said Chief Executive Officer Ganesh Ayyar. Investment firm Blackstone will acquire Hewlett Packard Enterprises' 60.17% stake in Mphasis for 54.65 bln rupees in a transaction that is likely to be completed in three to four months.

Blackstone, on its part, has sized the opportunity addressable by Mphasis at $1 bln per year. The private equity firm has 87 companies in its portfolio, spread across various industries such as real estate, energy, healthcare and retail, among others.

"We will have to create a separate dedicated team to go after portfolio companies of Blackstone and not mix it with other business simply because we don't want this to be a half-past-six hobby. We want to a dedicated team accountable to make it a success," said Ayyar.

Mphasis is yet to determine the opportunities it has, and is currently analysing all companies in Blackstone's portfolio to understand the potential size of the team. It is also looking for a leader for the team. The Bengaluru-based has strong capabilities in governance, risk and compliance solutions and digital services, and gets a majority of its revenue from banking, financial services and insurance, telecom and media sectors. -Cogencis