In the largest active transaction on the deal street, sale of mid-tier IT firm Mphasis by PE firm Blackstone, three independent sources with direct knowledge suggest that bulge bracket PE firm Carlyle is likely to be the key contender for a buyout which is worth approximately $3 billion.

Share Market Live

NSE

Blackstone is running the process for the sale of Mphasis and apart from Carlyle, Brookfield, Bain Capital and CVC have also been on the fray for the buyout deal.

Multiple sources with direct involvement in the deal share with CNBC-TV18 that some bidders may have gone slow on the process due to the large deal size & present equity valuations.

An industry expert with vast deal experience, on condition of anonymity, said, “It is a large deal and only a few can buy a company that size, drawing similarities to the Hexaware deal process. “

It’s a large deal and an astronomical gain proposition for Blackstone which bought the company in 2016 for $1.1 billion. Private equity promoter owns 56 percent stake in the company and the deal will trigger an open offer for the rest of the 26 percent stake from the minority shareholders.

CNBC-TV18 reached out to each of the parties involved in the deal,

Blackstone, Carlyle, Bain maintained “no comment.” Brookfield told CNBC-TV18, “We don’t/ can’t comment on deals” CVC did not offer a comment to CNBC-TV18’s query.

In a recent interview, Mphasis’ top management said that Blackstone’s exit to not impact revenues from its portfolio companies to the IT company. Mphasis’ revenues from Blackstone’s portfolio companies is likely at mid-single-digit of the total revenues.

(Edited by : Priyanka Rathi, Abhishek Jha)

First Published:Feb 22, 2021 3:42 PM IST