Everstone Capital is in discussions with other private equity firms and strategic investors to exit one of its bets in the information technology sector, said two people aware of the matter.
The India-focused private equity firm is looking to sell its entire stake in customer interaction management firm Servion Global Solutions Ltd.
Everstone is said to be holding a majority stake in the Chennai-based company. The size of the stake could not be ascertained.
“The PE fund has appointed BDA Blair as sell-side advisor. Several strategic and financial investors have been interested, given it is in the hot space of cloud contact centre management solutions. Four to five potentials are in the race currently,” one of the two people cited above said on the condition of anonymity.
The potential transaction could be worth around $200 million, the person added.
The second person said Everstone is in talks with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners among others for the transaction.
“Servion integrates and manages solutions of leading cloud CX providers like Genesys, Amazon, Cisco, Verint, Zoom, and Microsoft. The business has grown 25-35% year-on-year over the last two years,” the person said, highlighting the factors driving strong investor interest in the company.
Queries emailed to Everstone Capital, Servion Global and CVC Capital remained unanswered till press time.
PE firms, both local and global, have been aggressively chasing IT and ITeS bets, especially in the digital product engineering services space. Industry body The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has pegged India’s engineering R&D sector to post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13% to reach $65 billion by 2025, more than doubling from $31 billion in 2019.
In the recent past, another homegrown private equity firm Kedaara Capital has struck back-to-back deals in the IT services sector.
It purchased a majority stake in GAVS Technologies Ltd, a global IT services provider with a focus on AI-led managed services and digital transformation, and Great Software Laboratory Pvt. Ltd, a digital product engineering services company.
In November 2014, Everstone, along with American private equity firm Solmark LLC, had invested ₹403 crore in Servion. The fund returned in May 2017 to infuse additional capital into the business.
Incorporated in 1991, Servion has expertise in consulting, implementing and managing customer experience management (CEM) solutions and technologies.
The company claims that its more than 1,000 employees cater to more than 600 enterprises globally.
The company had also witnessed a change in leadership. In 2019, Sameer Gupte, who was then the chief executive officer, was replaced by Laurent Philonenko. Prior to Servion, Philonenko had held senior roles in organizations including Cisco, Avaya and Genesys.
Servion had also made acquisitions in the past. In March 2018, the company bought out Zurich, Switzerland-based insurtech firm Innoveo AG for an undisclosed amount.
