Carlyle Group to Sell Its Stake in BPO Newgen

Carlyle Group to Sell Its Stake in BPO NewgenOn Monday, PE giant, Carlyle Group has announced to sell its 65% stake in Chennai-based publishing BPO Newgen Knowledge Works to a group of investors led by Franklin Templeton. These shares were acquired by Carlyle about seven years ago for $9.4 million in one of the first private equity buyouts in the country. No financial details of the deal are available as of now.

The BPO Newgen Knowledge Works serves some of the largest publishing groups in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has a workforce of 800 people, who are working in India, the UK and the US.

Franklin Templeton is buying the shares of Carlyle Group along with Silicon Valley-based ePlanet Capital and Aureos South Asia Fund. ePlanet Capital is a venture capitalist who has made investments in Skype and China's Baidu.

Balaji Srinivas, Managing Director, Aureos India Advisors Pvt. Ltd., said, “The Company was convinced about the opportunity in the outsourced publishing space, specifically in the opportunity that presented itself in the digitization of books”.

According to analysts, e-publishing is on raise mainly due to increased outsourcing in the field of publishing.