Hong Kong-based private equity firm BPEA EQT has sold 3.5% of its stake in IT services company in Coforge Ltd for Rs 887 crore ($108 million) in a secondary market transaction, according to bulk deal data available with stock exchange BSE.
In Feb, BPEA EQT, formerly known as Baring Private Equity Asia, had sold 9.8% of its stake in Coforge (formerly called NIIT Technologies) for $294 million, according to Venture Intelligence.
Last year, it had sold a part of its stake in the firm for $335 million.
In an interview with The Times of India on Tuesday, Coforge CEO Sudhir Singh said the company will go for a US IPO as soon as the market revives. The company grew $1 billion in revenue in FY 2023.
In 2021, shareholders of Coforge were said to be selling securities worth as much as $750 million in a proposed American Depository Receipts/Shares offering in the US, according to media reports.
Coforge filed an offer document informing the stock exchanges that its shareholders will sell ADRs in a US IPO. The entire share sale is a secondary offering, and the company will not receive any money from the share sale.
ADS is one of the routes of raising capital from the US public markets for non-US companies.
The company is also actively scouting for acquisition in areas such as data, cloud, healthcare, and the ‘low-code no-code’ space, Singh told ETCIO.
BPEA’s other portfolio companies in India include Virtusa, Citius Tech, CMS, AGS Health, and RBS Bank. In Southeast Asia, the firm has backed retail platform The CrownX and Vietnam-USA Society English Centres in Vietnam, and business services provider TELUS International, education solutions provider Straive, and game development company Virtuos in Singapore.
BPEA EQT achieved a first close for its mid-market fund at the end of last year at roughly $400 million, AVCJ reported. The LPs included those that have existing relationships with the private equity firm.
Last month, BPEA EQT and its portfolio company Nord Anglia Education agreed to acquire Florida-based sports school IMG Academy for an enterprise value of $1.25 billion from NYSE-listed Endeavor Group.
Last year, BPEA announced the final close of its eighth fund at $11.2 billion, making it one of the largest private equity funds raised by an Asia-based private equity firm.