Happiest Minds launches ₹400 crore QIP

livemint.com:

₹400 crore Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) on late Tuesday evening, a person with knowledge of the development said. The company has allowed for a ₹100 crore allotment for oversubscription, which could take the total deal size to over ₹500 crore. The QIP is being managed by Axis Capital and ICICI Securities, the person cited above said, asking to be anonymous.

The SEBI floor price is ₹972.16 apiece, but the indicative offer price is at ₹924 per share, which is at a 7% discount to Monday's share price at ₹924 per share. Shares closed at ₹994.6 apiece on Monday on the NSE. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday evening.

However on late Tuesday evening it told the stock exchanges that its fundraising committee will meet on July 14. In October 2022, Happiest Minds secured a board approval to raise capital of up to ₹1400 crore. In a February 2023 interview with CNBC, Venkaraman Narayan, MD and CFO of Happiest Minds spoke about the company’s impending QIP plans.

Narayan also noted that Happiest Minds was scouting for acquisitions. In January, the company acquired Sri Mookambika Infosolutions (SMI), a Madurai-headquartered company, for ₹111 crore. A March 2023 Care Edge credit rating report said that Happiest Minds benefited from the experience of the management in scaling up the business and noted the company’s offerings in services such as the Internet of Things (IOT), Digital Services and Information Security "Uncertain global environment in key markets like USA and Europe, rising human capital cost and higher attrition continues to strain the performance of Information Technology (IT) industry in India," the Care Edge ratings report added.