By Kane Wu
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA) has shortlisted bidders including Bain Capital and French company Teleperformance SE for its India portfolio firm Hexaware Technologies in a deal that could fetch nearly $3 billion, sources said.
Also in the race are private equity firms KKR & Co and Carlyle Group, said the four people with knowledge of the deal, who declined to be named as the information is confidential.
BPEA has shortlisted a handful from around 10 initial bids to proceed to the next round, which is due in about a month, said the sources. Bids made for Hexaware ranged from $2.5 billion to close to $3 billion, they said.
Hong Kong-based BPEA, Bain, KKR and Carlyle declined to comment. Hexaware and Paris-based Teleperformance, which provides business services, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
BPEA bought a controlling stake in IT services firm Hexaware in 2013 for about $420 million and took the company private from the local stock exchanges late last year.
Mumbai-headquartered Hexaware provides automation, cloud and customer services-related technology to a wide range of industries including finance, education, hospitality and manufacturing.
With 37 offices in over 30 countries, the company’s revenue grew 6.5% year-on-year in 2020 to $845 million in U.S. dollar terms, according to its annual report.
Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grew 24.4% to 11 billion rupees in 2020.
(Reporting by Kane Wu; Additional reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal in Delhi; editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Kim Coghill)
