Carlyle emerges as sole bidder to take over Mphasis from Blackstone

Private equity fund Carlyle Group has emerged as the sole bidder to buy Mphasis, owned by the Blackstone Group, in what would be the largest buyout in the Indian IT industry, multiple people involved with the deal said, The Economic Times reported.

The offer to get Blackstone's controlling 56.12 percent stake is believed to be at Rs 1,450-1,500 a share. This would be lower than Mphasis' closing share price of Rs 1,701.70 as of February 23.

This transaction would also lead to a change in control. It would also trigger an open offer for an additional 26 percent shareholding of the company, the report said.

At the higher end of the bid, Blackstone will get Rs 15,730 crore (more than $2 billion) for its stake in Mphasis. This would be a 12 percent discount to its current holding value, which is Rs 17, 838 crore.

Based on the success of the opening offer, Carlyle may have to spend another Rs 7,400 crore based on the 60-day average price of Rs 1,538 a share.

Carlyle declined to comment. Blackstone and Mphasis did not respond to the newspaper's queries.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify this story.

In January, four global private equity (PE) firms expressed interest in acquiring Blackstone's majority stake in Mphasis. Brookfield, Carlyle, Bain Capital and Permira were shortlisted after submitting non-binding bids in mid-December.

Blackstone had hired Morgan Stanley to help with the deal, reports said.