Baring PE increases open offer size in NIIT Technologies

Baring Private Equity Asia has increased the proposed buyback of shares in NIIT Technologies from 26 per cent to 35 per cent as per a stock-exchange filing. The company had earlier acquired a 30 per cent stake in the technology firm for Rs 2,627 crore.

JM Financial, the manager for the open offer said in a filing that Baring PE Asia would now buy as many as 21.85 million shares for upto RS 3,045.47 crore as against 16.23 million at Rs 2,262.35 crore proposed earlier. Baring will pay Rs 1,394 per share in the open offer, which begins on July 15 and closes on July 26.

In April this year, Baring had agreed to buy out the founder promoters of the mid-size IT firm by acquiring 18.85 million share or about 30 per cent of the company. This included about 14.4 million shares of NIIT, the listed parent that owned 23.5 per cent of NIIT Technologies and about 4.3 million shares (7.10 per cent) held by members of families of NIIT founders Rajendra Pawar and Vijay Thadani.

This was the Hong Kong based private equity group’s second major transaction in the Indian IT space following the acquisition of a controlling stake in Hexaware.