Blackstone sells 8 pc stake in Mphasis for Rs 1,484-crore

Global private equity major Blackstone today offloaded 8 per cent stake in mid-sized IT services exporter Mphasis for a little over Rs 1,484 crore through an open market transaction.

Following the stake-sale, Blackstone's holding in the company has fallen to around 52 per cent.

According to bulk deal data available with the NSE, Blackstone through its unit Marble II Pte sold a total of 1,54,60,815 shares, amounting to 8 per cent stake of Mphasis. 

Shares were offloaded at Rs 960.09 a piece, valuing the transaction at Rs 1,484.37 crore, the data showed.

In April 2016, Blackstone had bought Hewlett Packard Enterprise's 60.5 per cent stake in Mphasis at Rs 430 per share and made an open offer at Rs 457 per share in 2016.

As of March this year, the private equity giant held 60.38 per cent stake in mid-sized IT services exporter. 

After the stake-sale, Blackstone India spokesperson said the company is committed to remaining a long-term majority shareholder of Mphasis and retaining control of the company.         

"Today's block was strategically executed to create more liquidity in the stock and enable high quality long-term investors to participate in the Mphasis growth story. Blackstone does not intend to sell any additional stake," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Among the buyers of the shares are Nomura, Oppenheimer and  First State Investments (Hong Kong) Ltd.

Individually, Oppenheimer International Small Company Fund bought over 28.11 lakh stocks of Mphasis, FSI (HK) picked up 24.4 lakh shares,  TNTBC as the trustee of Noumra India Stock Mother Fund purchased 15.2 lakh scrips and Nomura Funds Ireland Public Ltd Co-India Equity Fund acquired 11.2 lakh shares.

Shares of Mphasis closed 0.08 per cent higher at Rs 985.45 on BSE. The stock ended at Rs 982.10 on NSE, down 0.60 per cent from previous close