Indian IT Firm Happiest Minds More Than Doubles In Market Debut

Exchange data showed investors had bid for nearly 151 times the number of shares on offer from the company led by Ashok Soota, a veteran of India’s nearly $200 billion IT industry who also co-founded larger firm Mindtree Ltd. Soota is also Happiest Minds’ top individual shareholder.

The Bengaluru-based company derives 97% of its revenue from fast-growing digital IT services – such as analytics and artificial intelligence- and cloud-enabled services – compared with 30%-50% for traditional Indian IT services peers, analysts at Motilal Oswal estimated this month.

“Investors are realising the resilience of the sector as well as strong demand for IT, post the COVID-19 crisis,” Sneha Poddar, an analyst at Motilal Oswal said on Thursday.

“The fact that Happiest Minds comes from a strong management background also acts as a key positive … as people have seen how Mindtree has performed.”