Investcorp on Monday said it has agreed to buy NSEIT, the digital technology business of India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE), for Rs 1,000 crore ($119.85), as the Bahrain-based alternative asset manager continues to make inroads in the Asian nation.
Investcorp, which entered the Indian market nearly six years ago through the acquisition of the private equity (PE) and real estate funds businesses of IDFC Alternatives Ltd, aims to have assets worth $5 billion in India over the next five years.
Investcorp, which manages alternative investments in private equity, real estate, absolute return investments, infrastructure, credit management and strategic capital, has backed several Indian firms including Global Dental Services, Safari, XpressBees and FreshToHome.
“We have been doing deals in the $10-20 million range and of late, we have been doing deals in the $30-40 million range. As we aspire to go towards our $5 billion goal, you will see larger deals that we will be doing along the way,” Gaurav Sharma, Head of India Investment Business at Investcorp, told DealStreetAsia in an interaction.
“But we don’t want to force ourselves to do larger deals. We want to continue to operate in the mid-market segment in India,” he added.
NSEIT’s offerings include digital engineering, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud services, and cybersecurity services. This acquisition is an extension of Investcorp’s track record of investing in technology and IT services companies around the world, particularly in the US.
“It (NSEIT) is an entity that was born inside the NSE. What is interesting is that the NSE is only a quarter of their revenue. They have some very impressive customers in the US and GCC,” Varim Laul, partner at Investcorp, said.
The transaction excludes the digital examinations business that is also housed inside NSEIT.
In an interaction with DealAtreetAsia in 2022, Investcorp’s co-CEO Rishi Kapoor said that the firm (then) managed just over $600 million in India, which is a mere 1.5% of its $42.7 billion worth of global assets.
Currently, Investcorp has over $52 billion in total AUM, with offices across the US, Europe, GCC, and Asia, including India, China, Japan, and Singapore.
Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to NSE and NSEIT.
