Nearly three years after buying InterGlobe Technologies (now IGT Solutions) from Indigo Airlines owner InterGlobe Enterprises, private equity giant Apollo Global Management has put the leading BPO and digital services firm on the block, multiple persons in the know told Moneycontrol.
“Apollo Global Management wants to exit and has mandated investment banks Barclays and JP Morgan to find a buyer for IGT Solutions,” said one of the persons above.
To be sure, in January 2019, AION Capital Partners, a joint venture between Apollo Global Management & ICICI Venture had acquired IGT Solutions with reports pegging the deal value at $230mn. In April 2020, both parties ended the nine-year-old joint venture to pursue investments independently and with respect to AION Capital investments, it was decided that the joint venture would continue to be advised by Apollo affiliates with inputs from ICICI Venture until the end of the term.
A second person said Apollo Global Management is expecting a valuation of around $400 mn to $500 mn for the proposed transaction. “ The process is likely to elicit interest from both strategic suitors as well as PE funds, “ he elaborated.
During the earlier sale process which ended with Apollo Global emerging as the winner, reports indicated that the deal had attracted suitors like Tech Mahindra and private equity firms Everstone and Carlyle.
A third person also confirmed that Apollo Global was looking to sell IGT Solutions and said “the deal had been launched recently”
“It’s a good asset and now it is also seeing growth from segments beyond travel and hospitality. However with fresh concerns around Covid-19, it will be interesting to see how the transaction progresses in the days ahead,” he added.
All the three persons above spoke to Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.
Moneycontrol is awaiting the response to an email query sent to Apollo Global Management and has sent multiple reminders. This story will be updated when we hear from the firm. When contacted, Utsav Baijal, Head of India Private Equity at Apollo Global Management declined to comment. Barclays and JP Morgan also declined to comment.
Back in July, Apollo Global Management had joined hands with private equity firm Synergy Metals Investments Holdings Ltd and invested up to Rs 1,500 crores in IPO-bound JSW Cement. Moneycontrol had first reported the deal talks on April 19.
DEAL ACTIVITY? TECH THAT!
The BPO and IT sectors have seen a fair bit of deal activity in the last 12 to 15 months.
In March, Startek, a global business process management firm, said it had pumped in $30 million in IT services and tech support firm CSS Corp in a limited partnership managed by its majority shareholder, Capital Square Partners.
Later in August, Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS), the BPO arm of diversified conglomerate Hinduja Group, announced the sale of its healthcare services business to bulge bracket private equity fund Barings Private Equity Asia for an enterprise value of $1.2 billion.
The Economic Times recently reported that private equity firm Advent International was gearing up to acquire Encora, an Indian-origin IT services firm from rival Warburg Pincus for $1.5bn. Plus, the Indian office of Blackstone made a partial exit via the Nasdaq listing of BPO firm TaskUs and clocked five-fold returns.
A CLOSER LOOK AT IGT SOLUTIONS
According to its website, the firm was established in 1998 and employs more than 15,000 customer experience and technology specialists providing services to 75+ customers globally. IGT’s global footprint consists of 22 delivery centers in China, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, UAE, Romania, Indonesia, Spain, Colombia, and the USA.
The services of IGT Solutions include digital engineering, intelligent automation, data & analytics, digital CX centres, and CX transformation. Other than travel and hospitality, it also operates in segments like land transportation, logistics, and cargo, e-commerce, and gaming. It is led by CEO Vipul Doshi and Utsav Baijal is part of the company’s board of directors.
Apollo Global Management, a leading global alternative asset manager, has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Mumbai, New Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo. It had assets under management of approximately $481 billion as of September 30, 2021. The firm's Hybrid Value business provides flexible, tailored equity and debt capital solutions to private and public companies.
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