Happiest Minds Tech is on a path to mergers and acquisitions

After reporting a 3.6% uptick in operating revenue quarter-over-quarter, Bengaluru-based IT company Happiest Minds Technologies will be focusing on making significant acquisitions in the current financial year, for which the company will deploy a large chunk of its Rs 1,200 crore cash balance and Rs 500 crore raised through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) recently, managing director & chief financial officer Venkatraman Narayanan told DH.

The company, which has given a guidance of 25% revenue growth for the current year, without making a distinction between organic and inorganic growth, will update the same in October, based on the progress with these mergers and acquisitions, executive chairman Ashok Soota said in a statement.

“We have been consistently looking for companies to acquire or become part of the Happiest Minds family and it's not something that we started recently, but the process has been ongoing and we have built a nice pipeline of possible candidates,” Narayanan said. All these companies are 100% digital and most have certain vertical and horizontal capabilities, including those focused on Microsoft technologies, low code automation, generative AI and the like, and working in verticals such as banking and financial services, insurance and product engineering services, he added.

The uptick in operating revenue was on the back of increased deal-making, as the company onboarded 18 new clients in the quarter ended June 2023, making new clients 15% of its overall business. “Some larger companies have shown negative growth and the reason that's been given is the global macro environment and slowness in spending. While we are also working in the same kind of an environment, and we did see some difficulties in Q3 and Q4 of last year, we saw Q4 finally pick up reasonably well. On top of that, our existing customers and verticals are doing reasonably well,” Narayanan noted.

Going forward, the company is also gearing up for the global shift towards de-dollarisation, as 72% of its business comes from the United States, Narayanan said. “The US is the largest market with the largest opportunity but at the same time, the US is also the largest risk,” he informed and added that Happiest Minds will also be focusing on EdTech.