Blackstone sweetens delisting offer for R Systems International

Mumbai: Private equity major Blackstone on Wednesday sweetened the delisting offer price to be offered to public shareholders of IT services firm R Systems International, increasing the offer price to Rs 262 per share from Rs 246 earlier, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

At 11.43 am, shares of R Systems were trading at Rs258.25 apiece, up 1.25% on the BSE.

At the same time, Blackstone has also revised downwards the price it will pay to the promoters of the company for acquiring the 51.67% held by them. Blackstone had struck the deal to acquire promoter shares at Rs 245 per share, paying a sum of Rs 1,497 crore to the promoters. Under the revised price (Rs 244 for one tranche and Rs 227 per share for a second tranche), the consideration for promoter stake will reduce to Rs 1,436 crore.

The delisting plan involves an offer to buy 57.13 million shares from public shareholders. At the revised offer price, Blackstone will end up paying Rs 1497 crore to public shareholders, up by Rs 91.47 crore from its previous offer.

Blackstone will have to pay a total consideration of Rs 2933 crore for acquiring 100% shareholding.

In November, in a first-of-its-kind transaction for India’s capital markets, Blackstone announced that it will pick up a controlling stake in R Systems International Ltd for $359 million, and simultaneously delist the firm from the exchanges.

In 2021, Sebi had allowed investors to buy a controlling stake in a listed company, and also initiate a simultaneous process of delisting the company from stock exchanges. Earlier, investors picking up a controlling stake in a listed company, had to launch an open offer for 26% public shareholding, and only after a certain cooling off period were allowed to launch a delisting offer.

The regulator’s intent with this move was to make mergers and acquisitions of listed firms more attractive for financial as well as strategic investors, especially foreign investors who may be wary of running a listed entity in India.

R Systems was founded in 1993 by Satinder Singh Rekhi. It provides digital IT services and specializes in product engineering. It serves over 250 customers in technology, media, telecom, and financial services sectors, globally.