77-year-old IT entrepreneur's start-up hits IPO jackpot

Happiest Minds' shares were sold in a price range of Rs 165-166 ($2.3) apiece. Soota raised Rs 140 crore by selling part of his stake. The shares are likely to begin trading next

New Delhi: Bengaluru-based startup Happiest Minds Technologies limited (HMTL) had a very successful IPO recently. The IPO has already been subscribed several times. Opened last week on September 7, the offering closed on September 9th. The initial public offering was subscribed a whopping 151 times the last day of bidding.

As per the exchanges data, the qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) portion was subscribed 77.43 times, non-institutional investors 351.46 times and retail individual investors 70.94 times.

The IPO was of Rs 700 crore with about Rs 590 crore OFS and the rest being a fresh issue. Note that HTML was incorporated in 2011. 77-year-old Ashok Soota is the Executive Chairman and promoter of HMTL. For those who are not aware, Soota is a pioneer of India's information technology services industry.

He has headed three outsourcing companies, and taken two of them public. He was one of the people who nurtured Wipro and had launched Mindtree. Soota was the founding chairman and managing director of MindTree. He had also served as vice-chairman of Wipro.

Happiest Minds Technologies Ltd. was oversubscribed 151 times. The IPO got bids for 3.51 billion shares versus the 23.3 million on offer, making it one of India's most successful first-time share sales of this decade. HTML IPO was one of two IPOs last week to wooed Indian investors. HTML has raised Rs 316 crore from anchor investors. 

Here's how you can check Happiest Minds IPO allotment status:

• Those who have subscribed to the IPO can check the allotment status on the BSE website. Here's how
• Visit BSE website, select 'Equity' and then click 'Happiest Minds' from the dropdown
• Enter application number and PAN (Permanent Account Number)
• Click on search to view the status details
• Applicants can also visit the Registrar website (Linkintime, Karvy) to check the IPO allotment status

Note that HMTL is a next-generation digital transformation company deriving nearly 97% of its revenues from digital IT services like cloud, Saas, security analytics, IoT. Traditional Indian IT players derive nearly 30-50% revenue from digital IT services. Revenue mix is well-diversified across Edutech, Hitech, BFSI, travel media and entertainment sectors. 
 
During FY18-20 revenues grew at a cagr of over 20%. The company reported a loss in FY18, however, the adjusted profits have improved to Rs 83cr in FY20 and Rs 50 cr in April-June quarter itself. The IPO is priced at a PE multiple of 12x on FY21 earnings (after annualising Q1 earnings) as per brokerages. Let’s listen in to Poonam Saney to understand this IPO.

It is worth mentioning that the Happiest Minds' shares were sold in a price range of Rs 165-166 ($2.3) apiece. Soota raised Rs 140 crore by selling part of his stake. The shares are likely to begin trading next week.