Everstone sells customer experience platform Everise to Brookfield India for $450 million

Brookfield India, one of the largest private equity funds operating in the country, has agreed to acquire rival Everstone Group's Singapore-based customer experience platform Everise for a reported $450 million.

The companies did not reveal the value of the deal in their media statement on Tuesday, but sources pegged the value of the transaction at around USD 450 million. Through the sale, Everstone has reportedly made a threefold return on its four-year-old investment in Everise, said market sources.

The Everstone Group is a Singapore-based private equity firm founded by Indians Atul Kapur and Sameer Sain, and is focused on India and Southeast Asia, managing assets in excess of USD 5 billion across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and venture capital. Everise, co-founded by Everstone and Sudhir Agarwal, has been growing through acquisitions and the first was C3, a US-based BPO, from Stone Point Capital in December 2016.

Through acquisitions Everise grew rapidly from a pure-play call centre into an fullfledged vendor of customer experience management and digital services. Brookfield will buy up to 95 per cent in Everise, but cofounder Agarwal will continue as the CEO, Everstone said in the statement. Everise, which had revenue of USD 300 million and an operating profit of USD 40 million in FY20, provides services in the health & wellness, travel & hospitality, media & communications, financial services and logistics & supply chain sectors.

The Singapore-based Everise employs 12,000 globally with offices in 13 cities, including the US, Guatemala, the Philippines and Malaysia, the statement said. Aditya Joshi, a senior vice-president at Brookfield Business Partners, which is the acquirer, said in Everise they see a high-quality customer experience solutions provider with deep domain capabilities in healthcare and tech verticals and serving a diverse set of marquee global customers.

For Everstone this is the second transaction involving Canadian PE giant Brookfield, which reportedly pipped global outsourcing provider Platinum to clinch the deal. Everstone held a near total stake in Everise while its co-founder Agarwal held a minority stake through his company Sunrise BPO. Everstone had partnered with Sunrise four years ago to launch Everise and expanded the business through multiple buyouts.

After the Brookfield transaction, Agarwal will hold a small stake in the company and continue to run the company as the CEO. Everstone has been investing in IT-enabled services globally, and owns significant stakes in Servion, an India based customer experience solutions provider; Omega Healthcare, the largest offshore healthcare revenue cycle management business servicing the US healthcare industry; and Infostretch, a pure-play digital engineering services firm based in the US.

“This transaction caps an excellent 12-month period for our tech services practice, starting with the investments in Omega Healthcare and Infostretch, and ending with the exit from Everise,” said Avnish Mehra, a senior managing director with Everstone. “The partnership with Everstone enabled us to build an exceptional platform under Everise,” Sudhir Agarwal said.