Cognizant and Apax eye $600m LiquidHub deal

Industry:    2017-08-20

Cognizant Technology Solutions and Apax Partners, which is an investor in mid-sized IT services company Zenzar, are among the shortlisted suitors for a potential buyout of digital tech company LiquidHub for as much as$600 million.

India’s oldest private equity investor ChrysCapital holds around 48% stake in the company which counts Standard Chartered and Bear Stearns as customers. It marries design and technology to offer an enhanced customer engagement with its multi-disciplinary teams comprising of researchers, architects and designers.

JP Morgan has been mandated to run the sale process, which has seen four potential suitors being shortlisted. The indicative bids are in the range of $450 to $600 million, people directly familiar with the matter said.

Accenture, Capgemini and EY are among others who prospected the deal. Capgemini sought an extended time frame to make an offer and is currently not in the process, sources cited earlier said. Apax Partners could be pursuing the acquisition as a possible addition to one of its portfolio companies, Zenzar.

LiquidHub revenue is estimated at $270 million with an operating profit off around $40-45 million. An emailed query to LiquidHub remained unanswered at the time of going to press. ChrysCapital declined to comment on specific portfolio companies. Cognizant and Accenture said they would not comment on market speculation. Tech companies like Accenture and IBM are lapping up digital firms for a differentiated positioning among its customers as their businesses are increasingly impacted by newer digital imperatives like analytics, internet of things, cloud and mobile. Accenture and IBM have been on an acquisition spree buying 38 and 15 companies respectively in the last two calendar years.
Liquidhub, which has morphed from a tech integrator to digital specialist over the last ten years, has operations spanning North America, Asia and Europe. The customer engagement company has a unique proposition of integrating front-end and technology backend for its customers for a superior customer experience. It has close to 1800 employees globally.
The company has made six acquisitions including Eveo that has aided Liquidhub foray into healthcare onboarding digital specialists across the healthcare ecosystem. Last year, it acquired New Delhi based data management and analytics company Annik that has provided better customers experiences for firms like Netflix, HP, Nestle.
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