Think Investments Opposes TaskUs Take-Private Transaction, Citing Undervaluation and Flawed Process

Think Investments, a significant shareholder of TaskUs, opposes the company's proposed take-private transaction with Blackstone and TaskUs' founders at $16.50 per share, citing the price undervalues TaskUs by 50% and is the result of a flawed process. Think believes TaskUs has significant value creation potential, particularly in AI services, and that the transaction would prevent minority shareholders from realizing this upside. The firm plans to vote against the transaction.

Think Investments LP, a significant shareholder of TaskUs, Inc. (Nasdaq: TASK), has publicly opposed the company's proposed take-private transaction with Blackstone and TaskUs' founders at $16.50 per share. In a detailed presentation, Think Investments argued that the proposed price undervalues TaskUs by more than 50% and is the result of a flawed process. The firm plans to vote against the transaction, believing that TaskUs has significant value creation potential, particularly in AI services, and that minority shareholders would be prevented from realizing this upside.

The presentation by Think Investments, a $3 billion investment firm with offices in San Francisco and Mumbai, outlines several key points. It claims that the proposed transaction price of $16.50 per share substantially undervalues TaskUs. Think Investments' analysis of relevant comparable transactions and the company's recent operating outperformance indicates that a fair valuation for TaskUs is $25.00 per share, more than 50% above the proposed buyout price. According to Think Investments, TaskUs has significantly outperformed financial expectations since the announcement of the transaction, further warranting a re-rating.

The presentation also highlights the skewed process that led to the proposed transaction. Think Investments believes that the TaskUs Board of Directors' Special Committee failed to undertake a comprehensive process to determine a fair price for the company. The fairness opinion appears to deliberately and exclusively include precedent transactions and public comparables with low valuation multiples. Notably, the most relevant precedent transaction, the acquisition of WNS by Capgemini, was omitted from the company's valuation materials. This transaction implies a fair value for TaskUs of approximately 12x LTM EBITDA, in contrast to the fairness opinion's 6.8x median precedent transaction multiple.

Think Investments also contends that the transaction would prevent minority shareholders from realizing TaskUs' significant value creation potential, particularly in AI services. AI Services constitute the fastest scaling portion of the business, with 65.5% YoY growth in H1'25. Coupled with strong momentum coming out of the first half of the year, Think Investments believes the transaction's contemplated price fails to compensate minority shareholders for the company's intrinsic value.

The firm's opposition to the transaction comes as another significant shareholder, Murchinson Ltd., has also expressed concerns about the proposed deal. Murchinson has issued an open letter to fellow stockholders, highlighting the discrepancy between the company's claims of potential risk and the actual performance of peers. Murchinson believes that stockholders are better off rejecting the proposed transaction and preserving the potential for a fair deal at a later time.

The proposed transaction is conditioned on approval by a majority of the unaffiliated vote. With Think Investments and potentially other minority shareholders opposing the deal, the outcome of the special meeting of stockholders scheduled for September 10, 2025, remains uncertain.

References:
[1] https://www.marketscreener.com/news/significant-shareholder-think-investments-issues-presentation-detailing-opposition-to-taskus-take-pr-ce7c50d9dc8df127
[2] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250826743193/en/Murchinson-Issues-Letter-to-Fellow-TaskUs-Stockholders-in-Response-to-the-Companys-Misleading-Presentation