Hexaware to get a new board after Carlyle acquisition last year

CEO, Hexaware

Mid-tier IT firm Hexaware is all set to get a new board after its acquisition by the private equity firm Carlyle last year with the focus to accelerate growth, said chief executive R Srikrishna.

In October 2021, Carlyle Group, a US-based PE firm, bought Baring Private Equity Asia stake in the IT firm for reportedly close to $3 billion. The change in board comes at the back of this acquisition. Prior to the acquisition, then promoter Baring de-listed Hexaware from the Indian stock exchanges in November 2020.

New board

The new board members, Srikrishna in an interaction with Moneycontrol said, are professionals. However, he did not share more information on the same. As a private entity, he said the company has the flexibility to look at multiple options for growth.

“It is a new investment and Carlyle has come on board just a few months ago. They are not thinking about exit.  The focus of the board is growth,” Srikrishna said.

The company is also seeing synergies with Carlyle’s portfolio.

“In the past, we virtually had zero business from Baring portfolio companies. That will change quite a bit going forward. We already have two clients from the Carlyle portfolio. That is just in a few months, and they have over 200 companies in their portfolio, and are investing in an average of two to three companies in a month. Each of them has a potential for us to become clients. So, the focus is accelerated growth and the board is set up to help us grow faster,” Srikrishna explained.

Re-listing

Responding to the question about if the company is looking at relisting, Srikrishna said, “Given our status right now as a private company, we have a lot of options. We could re-list anywhere in the world. So we have a lot of flexibility in what we do.” However he did respond to queries about if this is an active discussion or if the company is looking at possible re-listing with better valuation in the US.

Revenue north of $1 billion in 2022

Talking about the growth, Srikrishna said that Hexaware is growing at 20 percent and will end 2022 with revenue well north of $1 billion. On the back of the robust growth momentum, Hexaware is looking to hire 10,000 laterals and 2000 freshers in 2022. Headcount stands at 25,000 for the firm at the end of 2021.