Blackstone to buy stake in R Systems

US investment fund Blackstone Inc said on Thursday (17) it would buy a 52 percent stake in India's R Systems International from the IT services company's promoters for $359m.

Blackstone said it would pay $3 per R Systems share, a premium of around 4 percent to the closing price on Wednesday (16).

‘R Systems is well-positioned to benefit from digitalization tailwinds, shorter product launch cycles and increased openness to outsource product development,' Blackstone Senior Managing Director Mukesh Mehta said in a statement.

Blackstone said it would launch a conditional de-listing offer at $3 per share and that it was seeking regulatory approval from the Indian market regulator.

Satinder Singh Rekhi, one of R Systems‘ promoters selling their stake, will be a non-executive advisor to Blackstone.

ASIA's richest man Gautam Adani on Saturday (19) said India, which took 58 years to become a trillion-dollar economy, will add an equivalent sum to GDP every 12-18 months and will be the world's second-largest economy by 2050.

Speaking at the 21st World Congress of Accountants in Mumbai, he said back-to-back global crises have challenged several assumptions, including that China should adopt western democratic principles, secular principles are universal, the European Union would stay together, and that Russia would be forced to accept a reduced international role.

‘This multilevel crisis has shattered the myth of a unipolar or a bipolar world of superpowers that could step in and stabilise global environments,' he said.

‘In my view - in this emerging multipolar world - superpowers will need to be those that take responsibility to step in and help others in a crisis and not bully other nations into submission, those that keep humanity as their foremost operating principle.'

A superpower, he said, must also be a thriving democracy and yet believe that ‘there is no one uniform style of democracy.'

‘The style of capitalism that drives growth for the sake of growth and ignores the social fabric of a society, is rightfully facing its greatest pushback ever,' he said.

Adani, 60, said the foundations of India's increasing economy might have become relevant and a majority government has given the nation the ability to initiate several structural reforms in the political and administrative system.

‘Given the pace at which the government has been executing a vast multitude of simultaneous social and economic reforms, I anticipate that within the next decade, India will start adding a trillion dollar to its GDP every 12 to 18 months,' he said.