Private equity giant Baring Asia, which owns the software firm Hexaware Technologies, is set to pick the $3 billion offer from the Carlyle Group for the city-based company. The Carlyle Group – the Washington-based multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services giant with over $260 billion in assets under management and specialising in private equity, real assets, and private credit – is set to pip bulge-bracket private equity giants such as Bain Capital, KKR & Co and the Paris-based outsourcer Teleperformance and is most likely to be the winner with around $3 billion bid. All these bidders had submitted binding bids by mid-August. If the deal is materialized it will be the biggest deal in the domestic software services space.
It can be noted that the IT/BPO segment has already seen two big deal announcements in 2021. To unlock value for shareholders, Hinduja Global Solutions, the BPO arm of the Hinduja Group, had early this month announced sale of its healthcare services business to Barings Private Equity Asia for an enterprise value of $1.2 billion. Late last month Baring had shortlisted from around 10 bids Carlyle, KKR, Bain and the French Teleperformance for Hexaware, which provides automation, cloud and customer services-related technology to a wide range of industries, including finance, education, hospitality and manufacturing.