 "Blackstone")
Private equity player Blackstone on Monday sold a 15.1 per cent stake in mid-tier IT firm Mphasis via block deals. The private equity major sold 28.5 million shares at Rs 2,363 a piece, raising Rs 6,736 crore. Among the buyers were Kotak Mutual Fund (bought shares worth Rs 1,121 crore), Morgan Stanley (Rs 526 crore), and Société Générale (Rs 251 crore).
Shares of Mphasis fell nearly 3 per cent to end at Rs 2,398 on the NSE, where Rs 8,042 crore worth of shares were traded.
Since its initial investment in Mphasis in 2016, the private equity player has seen its investment value increase over 400 times.
Blackstone acquired a 60.48 per cent stake in Mphasis from Hewlett Packard Enterprises in 2016 for Rs 5,466 crore (at the time, $827 million). The stock price of Mphasis was then Rs 430 per share.
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In 2021, Blackstone switched funds and committed up to $2.8 billion to hold a 55.45 per cent stake in Mphasis. In 2021, Blackstone also got investors such as Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, GIC, and UC Investments to invest in the firm.
For Blackstone, IT and tech investment has been a sweet spot. It has preferred to be a long-term investor in its tech investments.
In the past, Blackstone has invested in the Indian tech services story and has been a long-term investor. Business Process Management firm Intelenet was one such investment. In 2018, Blackstone exited from Intelenet, which was acquired by French outsourcing giant Teleperformance in a $1 billion deal. Blackstone had acquired Intelenet in 2013 for $385 million.
Blackstone had also invested in IBS Software. In 2023, Apax acquired Blackstone’s stake for $450 million.
