Talwar Thakore and Associates (TTA), Linklaters, Wadia Ghandy & Co, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Simmons & Simmons have advised on British company Serco’s acquisition of Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) Intelenet for $634m marking private equity (PE) firm Blackstone’s exit from the BPO.

TTA along with best friends Linklaters represented Serco on domestic and English laws respectively with TTA partners Kunal Thakore and Feroz Dubash and Linklaters London-based corporate M&A partner William Buckley and associate Savi Hebbur in the lead.

Wadia Ghandy Mumbai partner Ankit Majmudar advised Intelenet’s holding company SKR BPO Services

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’s London office led by partner Mike Wolfson and associate Sinjini Saha were the legal counsels to Blackstone, which held 67 per cent stake in Intelenet.

Simmons & Simmons with partner Gideon Sharp acted for Barclays Bank, which was another stakeholder in Intelenet.

Barclays Bank, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Intelenet’s management together owned 33 per cent of Intelenet which Serco has now bought.

The transaction is understood to be one of the first PE secondary sales in the Indian market and includes contingent payments of up to £50m to be fully funded from Serco’s debt facilities, stated Linklaters in a press release.

Subject to regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close in the coming months.

Intelenet operates 34 global delivery centres across seven countries catering to sectors such as financial services, travel, healthcare and telecom while Serco is a FTSE 100 international service company that provides operational, management and consulting expertise to various industries and sectors.

Last year in November Khaitan & Co, Wadia Ghandy, Simmons & Simmons and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett had teamed together on Barclays Bank’s reinvestment in Intelenet for an acquisition of a 12.75 per cent stake in its holding company.