Ashok Soota to sell Rs 1,330-cr Happiest Minds stake

New Delhi: IT industry veteran Ashok Soota is selling a 22.1 per cent stake in Happiest Minds Technologies to ITC Infotech for about Rs 1,330 crore, with the proceeds set to fund his medical research and healthcare ventures.

The 83-year-old entrepreneur will channel the funds into SKAN (Scientific Knowledge for Ageing and Neurological Ailments), his not-for-profit medical research trust, and Happiest Health, a health and wellness platform that is preparing to expand into physical hospitals.

Happiest Minds MD Venkatraman Narayanan said the capital requirements of Soota’s new ventures were “quite massive”. SKAN has recently opened its first campus and plans to develop a 2-lakh square feet facility involving an estimated investment of Rs 350 crore. Happiest Health is expected to require Rs 300-400 crore as it moves towards setting up hospitals.

“Soota was looking to scale down or pare down his investments in Happiest Minds to fund his venture, Happiest Health, and also his not-for-profit organisation, SKAN,” Narayanan said.

ITC Infotech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITC Ltd, will acquire 3,36,61,700 Happiest Minds shares from Soota and Ashok Soota Medical Research LLP in two tranches at Rs 390 and Rs 400 per share.

The stake purchase is part of a larger strategic transaction to merge ITC Infotech and Happiest Minds, creating an AI-first enterprise targeting USD 1 billion in revenue by FY28.

Happiest Minds said a strategic sale was preferred over open-market block deals, which could have put pressure on the company’s share price and affected shareholder sentiment.

The proposed merger is expected to take around 15 months.