INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - March 16th - March 31st - 2008
NALANDA INDIA PICKS UP 5.25% IN US-LISTED BPO FIRM WNS (HOLDINGS)
Former Warburg Pincus India honcho Pulak Prasad’s PE fund Nalanda India has picked up a 5.25% stake in US-listed BPO firm WNS (Holdings). The fund acquired 2.2 million shares of the BPO firm, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, according to an SEC filing by WNS. Though the transaction size was not disclosed, going by the scrip price on March 14-the day of the transaction- the deal value would be about $32-34 million.
The BPO firm has a market cap of $667.6 million and is majority owned by Warburg Pincus. Institutional investment, including that by asset management firm Fidelity Management & Research and Tiger Management, in WNS totals 38.01%.
“We don’t comment on public market investor activity concerning our stock,” WNS group CEO Neeraj Bhargava communicated through his media representative.
WNS is the second Warburg portfolio firm where Nalanda India, the India fund of Singapore-headquartered private equity fund Nalanda Capital, is known to have invested. The $400-million fund, which has a mandate to invest only in publicly-listed companies, had picked up a 14.9% stake in Jaipur-based Vaibhav Gems. The investment was in the form of Global Depository Receipts (9.9%), with an additional 5% through warrants. The total transaction size, including the potential exercise of warrants, pegged the deal at about $35 million. At the end of December 2007, Warburg Pincus held a 28.12% stake in Vaibhav Gems through its arm, Cortland Investments.
WNS recently reported revenue for third quarter ended December 2007 of $115.6 million and a net profit of $5.5 million. It has projected revenue less repair payments for the fiscal year to be between $290-295 million.
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