AGS Transact Technologies Ltd promoter Ravi Goyal is raising $100 million in debt from Piramal Enterprises’ lending unit to buy back shares from private equity investors TPG Growth and Actis Capital, two people aware of the development said.
Goyal owns 55.2% in AGS Transact, TPG holds 26% and Actis arm Oriole Ltd owns 16.44%.
TPG and Actis made their first round of investments in AGS in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Mint had first reported in February that the AGS promoter was looking to raise funds to buy out investors in the company.
“AGS promoter is in advanced talks with Piramal’s lending unit to raise around $100 million in debt to buy back the 42% stake held by the two private equity funds. The transaction is expected to close in a couple of weeks,” said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity as the talks are private.
The stock buyback will provide an exit to the investors, who were previously betting on an initial public offering of the company to sell their investments, he added.
In March 2015, AGS Transact filed papers with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise up to Rs1,350 crore through an initial share sale, which did not materialize.
AGS had filed initial public offering or IPO documents in 2010 with Sebi.
Emails sent to AGS Transact did not elicit any response. “We would not like to comment on market speculation,” a spokesperson for Piramal group said in an emailed response to a query.
Spokespersons for TPG Growth and Actis declined to comment.
Founded by Goyal in 2002, AGS Transact’s ATM outsourcing division has a client base of over 80 banks.
AGS, with over 60,000 ATMs, has a 25% market share of the total installed base of about 207,000 ATMs, according to Reserve Bank of India data in December 2017.
Source: Mint