Happiest Minds founder and executive chairman Ashok Soota explores stake sale, taps banker to assess options

Ashok Soota, Founder, Happiest Minds

• Ashok Soota may sell his stake in Happiest Minds, valued at Rs 1,980 crore.
• JM Financial is evaluating strategic options, including a possible stake sale.
• Shares of Happiest Minds fell 42 percent in 12 months amid IT sector headwinds.

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Information technology (IT) firm Happiest Minds founder and executive chairman Ashok Soota is exploring a potential sale of his stake in the company, people familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol. Soota currently holds over 32 percent in the IT services firm directly and more than 40 percent through other promoter holdings.

Ashok Soota Medical Research LLP holds about 11.8 percent stake in the company.

Soota’s stake in Happiest Minds Technologies is valued at approximately Rs 1,980 crore at current market prices.

Moneycontrol has learnt that JM Financial has been engaged to evaluate strategic options, including a possible stake sale. Discussions are at a preliminary stage, with valuation remaining a key consideration.

Private equity funds have been tapped for potential bids, sources said.

Soota, the 83-year-old IT industry veteran, is a serial entrepreneur, having led companies where he was the founding chairman to successful IPOs: Happiest Minds in 2020 and MindTree in 2007 (now LTIMindtree). He's also an active philanthropist and the founder of Happiest Health, an enterprise focused on wellness.

Moneycontrol reached out to the company and JM Financial with queries regarding the stake sale; however, it did not receive a response.

Shares of the company have declined by about 42 percent over the past 12 months, reflecting weakening Street sentiment on performance. However, this needs to be viewed in the context of the broader BSE IT index, which has fallen over 12.5 percent during the same period.

The IT industry has faced headwinds over the past couple of years due to reduced discretionary spending by companies, driven by economic uncertainty, elevated interest rates in the post-pandemic period, and tighter budgets. Concerns around software jobs following the emergence of generative AI in November 2022 have further exacerbated negative sentiment.

At 11 AM, the shares of the company were trading over 1.23 percent lower at Rs 398.95 on the NSE.

In its most recent quarterly results for the period ended September 30, 2025, the Bengaluru-headquartered firm reported 2.3 percent sequential and 6.7 percent year-on-year growth in constant-currency revenue, reaching slightly over $65 million. For FY25, revenue grew 25.6 percent in constant-currency terms to $244 million.

Also, read: Happiest Minds says demand environment stable as digital, AI programs continue

Private equity in IT

In recent quarters, private equity activity in the IT and technology space has intensified.

For instance, Carlyle has been aggressively expanding its IT and technology portfolio during 2025–26, with a focus on digital transformation, AI, and cloud services.

Recent deals include the acquisition of a majority stake in Czech IT firm Adastra. The Carlyle Group had earlier acquired a controlling stake in Indian IT services firm Hexaware Technologies for approximately $3 billion in November 2021.

Carlyle also announced the acquisition of Intelliflo from Invesco for up to $200 million.

On December 25, Moneycontrol exclusively reported that Coforge was in advanced discussions to acquire Encora, potentially one of the largest transactions in the digital engineering space, citing sources. The development was confirmed on December 26, when Coforge announced it would acquire Encora in an all-stock transaction valued at $2.35 billion.