Baring PE Asia preparing for India's largest leveraged buyout loan: Report

Baring Private Equity Asia is preparing to launch syndication of a $600 million loan and use the proceeds to delist Hexaware Technologies and for the repayment of bonds, according to an International Financial Review Asia report.  

The loan will be used for the delisting of Hexaware and for repaying bonds for Baring’s shareholding vehicle, HT Global IT Solutions Holdings.

Bank SinoPac, E Sun Commercial Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp have joined the 9 original mandated lead arrangers and book runners on the deal, which has an average life of 4.5 years, the report added. The leverage for the loan is 4.25–4.30 times and the opening margin is around 450 basis points over LIBOR.

Baring, which holds 62.34 per cent stake in the Navi Mumbai-based mid-tier IT services provider, offered to buy the remaining stake held by public shareholders for Rs 3193 crore ($424.6 million) at Rs 285 per share in June.

 

Earlier this month, a majority of the company's shareholders approved the proposal to delist Hexaware. The private equity firm might have to raise the offer price to Rs 400 per share to get investor interest in the delisting process, Madhu Babu, analyst at Centrum Broking, wrote in a recent note.

The shares closed at Rs 421.50 per share on Friday, a 47.7 per cent premium to the indicative offer price.

The proceeds will also be used for repaying a $368 million 7 per cent senior secured bond which was originally due in July 2021. However, the borrower is exercising a call option that expires this month as a result of which it will repay around $385 million. Baring was not reachable for a comment.

Baring previously used LBO financing for Hexaware – a $185 million 5-year amortising loan in 2013  - for its initial purchase and a $250 million 5-year dividend recapitalisation in March 2015.