Blackstone close to buying HP’s controlling stake in MphasiS for about $940 mn

US private equity firm Blackstone Group is close to finalising a deal to buy Hewlett Packard Inc's (HP) controlling stake in IT outsourcing services provider MphasiS Ltd worth about $940 million Reuters yesterday reported, citing three sources directly involved in the transaction.

HP, which holds around 60.5 per cent stake in MphasiS, is keen to exit from MphasiS in order to strengthen its balance sheet.

Bids for HP's stake were submitted earlier this month and Blackstone has emerged as the front-runner, the report said.

Based on MphasiS' stock price yesterday , HP's stake in the Bengaluru-based company is around $940 million. The company's total market value is about $1.6 billion.

MphasiS was formed in 2000 and six years later Electronics Data Systems Corp acquired a majority holding in the company for $380 million. (See: EDS completes Mphasis acquisition)

In 2008, EDS was acquired by Hewlett Packard, which resulted in the transfer of the shareholding to HP (HP set to acquire EDS for over $12 billion).

Mphasis is an IT services company formed in 2000 after the merger of the US-based IT consulting company MphasiS Corp and the Indian IT services firm BFL Software Ltd.

The BSE and NSE-listed company employs more than 40,000 people and is India's seventh-largest IT company.

The company provides infrastructure technology and applications outsourcing services, as well as architecture guidance, application development and integration, and application management services.

It clients are from the financial services, telecom, logistics, and technology industries.

MphasiS has more than 30 offices in 19 countries with delivery centers in India, Sri Lanka, China, Australia, Japan, North America and Europe.