MUMBAI: US private equity giant KKR is in early talks with strategic and financial investors including American late-stage tech investor Silver Lake Partners and Accenture to sell its oldest India investment, Flextronics Software , now known as Aricent , for about $1.5 billion.KKR has mandated JP Morgan to run a formal process and the investment bank has reached out to French technology giant Capgemini to buy a controlling stake in the Santa Clara, California-based technology firm, multiple sources in the know told ET.The deal, if successful, will mark KKR’s exit from its oldest investment in an India-focused company. When contacted, KKR and Capgemini declined to comment. Accenture and Silver Lake did not return mails seeking comments till the time of going to press.Founded in 1991 in Delhi as Hughes Software Systems (HSS) by KV Ramani, Aricent has been involved in several takeovers. According to IT analysts, Capgemini, which has undergone a leadership change recently, will bid aggressively for any large tech M&A transaction.Accenture, one of the world’s largest technology and consulting firms, has been looking to expand horizontally.“Tech companies have mostly grown through acquisitions, but this particular company has been struggling for some time and KKR, which made its India debut with this deal, found it tough to sell the company. A successful exit will work in KKR's favour,” said Nishit Dhruva, managing partner, MDP & Partners, a law firm.

Source: Economic Times November 14, 2017 19:09 UTC