iGate-Apax consortium likely to announce Patni deal

After delays, the consortium of US-based IT firm iGate and venture capital fund Apax Partners is likely to finally announce on Monday its deal to buy a 63 per cent stake in Patni Computer Systems for an estimated $1 billion.

After cancelling the announcement last week, the iGate-Apax consortium is expected to make the announcement on Monday in Bangalore.

When contacted, iGate officials declined to comment on the details of the announcement. However, sources in-the-know said it is likely to be related to the iGate-Apax consortium's estimated $one billion bid to buy a majority stake in Patni Computer.

Under the deal, the iGate-Apax consortium is expected to acquire the entire 46 per cent stake of Patni Computer System's main promoters, the Patni brothers - Narendra Patni, Ashok Patni and Gajendra Patni - along with General Atlantic's 17 per cent stake in the firm.

According to industry analysts, the consortium will pay Rs 500-550 for each share of Patni Computer to be acquired, besides a non-compete fee to the promoters.

On Friday, shares of Patni closed at Rs 460.10 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, down 0.69 per cent from the previous close.

Patni, a mid-sized IT services firm, provides solutions to verticals like insurance, telecom, utilities and retail. It's revenues for the year ended December 2009, stood at Rs 1,751.33 crore ($391.79 million, at an exchange rate of Rs 44.70 per US dollar).

iGate's revenues, on the other hand stood at $74.8 million for the quarter ended September 2010, and $193 million for the whole of 2009.

Closure of the deal would mark the culmination of several efforts by Patni's promoters and General Atlantic to sell their stake since 2007. Earlier attempts to sell a stake failed because of disagreements between the brothers and the high valuation expectations of the sellers.

iGate had also expressed interest in buying Satyam Computer Services, after the multi-crore scam perpetrated by founder B Ramalinga Raju broke out. Satyam has since been rebranded Mahindra Satyam, following its acquisition by Tech Mahindra.