Happiest Minds targeting double-digit growth in FY27: MD Venkatraman Narayanan. MD Venkatraman Narayanan says slipping large deals held back Q2 growth, but a strong pipeline, new business initiatives and cybersecurity demand keep the full-year target within reach, even as the ITC Infotech integration stays on track Mid-tier IT firm Happiest Minds Technologies posted revenue growth of 12.5 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in INR terms in Q2 FY27, while constant-currency growth stood at 6.87 per cent. The company logged a net profit of Rs 62 crore, up 15.1 per cent YoY, and improved its operating margin by 100 basis points to 18.5 per cent over the six-month period. Utilisation stood at 82 per cent, while repeat business was at 95.1 per cent. However, constant-currency (cc) growth fell short of its internal expectation of 12.5 per cent, partly due to delays in closing large deals. The company is now targeting double-digit growth for the full year, banking on large deal wins, geographical diversification and new business initiatives. Its proposed integration with ITC Infotech is also progressing through key milestones, as per the company's management. In an interview with BW Businessworld, Venkatraman Narayanan, Managing Director at Happiest Minds Technologies, discusses the company's Q2 FY27 performance, growth outlook, large deal pipeline, AI-led services, cybersecurity opportunities and the proposed integration with ITC Infotech. Excerpts: Happiest Minds reported revenue growth of 12.5 per cent in INR terms, while constant-currency growth was approximately 6.8 per cent. The difference was partly due to currency movements. Were you happy with the results? I would say that our results have been pretty good, particularly relative to how the industry has performed this quarter and the conditions in the market. There has been considerable uncertainty in the Middle East, the US and Europe. There has also been a lot of discussion around AI-led value destruction and its potential impact on the industry. Against this backdrop, we have performed reasonably well, growing 6.8 per cent on a YoY basis. Our profitability has also improved. If you look at the six-month comparison, we have expanded our operating margin by approximately 100 basis points, from 17.5 per cent to 18.5 per cent, which is what we had targeted. The strategies we had put in place were aimed at growing both revenue and profitability, and we have been able to achieve progress on both fronts. That said, there are areas where we could have done better. We had internally expected constant-currency growth of 12.5 per cent, compared with the approximately 7 per cent we have delivered. We have fallen short of that expectation. One of the reasons is that a couple of large deals in our pipeline have been slipping by a quarter. They moved from Q1 to Q2, and are now likely to happen in Q3. We have already submitted our bids and remain in contention. We are hopeful that decisions will be taken on time, allowing us to execute the work in Q3 and Q4. There are also a couple of licensing deals for our Arttha Banking platform that we are expecting to close. These have been pending for some time. Such deals tend to be binary: either you win them or you do not. We are currently on the final shortlist, but the decisions have been delayed. Despite these delays, we are hoping to do better than the approximately 7 per cent growth delivered so far and touch double-digit growth, which effectively means around 10 per cent, for the year. You also mentioned that utilisation is at 82 per cent and repeat business stands at 95.1 per cent. Could you elaborate on the operational performance, the progress in your new business initiatives and the proposed integration with ITC Infotech? Utilisation is healthy at 82 per cent. Repeat business stands at 95.1 per cent, and we have added customers. We have also hopefully managed to stem the outflow of business from our EduTech segment. EduTech, which was largely focused on the US market, had been a drag on our performance. We have managed to address that and are growing our geographies outside America, which was one of the areas that had contributed to our earlier challenges. Looking at our half-year performance, I am happy with the progress we have made. However, compared with the targets we had set for ourselves, there is still room for improvement. Our new-new business strategy, including the initiatives led by Maninder, is beginning to pay off. Our GCC strategy is also gradually delivering results. We have been pursuing a private equity-led strategy as well, under which we have signed two large deals that are ramping up well. So, we have adopted multiple strategies to strengthen the business. Looking at our half-year performance, I am happy with the progress we have made. However, compared with the targets we had set for ourselves, there is still room for improvement. On the proposed integration with ITC Infotech, the timelines we communicated in our presentation are progressing well. We have already met three or four checkpoints and are hopeful of meeting the subsequent milestones as well. This is something both companies want to accomplish successfully. It is a joint effort, and the objective is to create a strong combined business. The proposed combination would create a billion-dollar company with approximately 20,000 employees and a business presence spanning almost every continent. You mentioned the large-deal pipeline. However, the number of multi-million-dollar deals appears to have fallen year-on-year. Could you explain what kind of large deals Happiest Minds is pursuing and how you are looking to rebuild this pipeline? Our definition of a large deal is anything exceeding USD 3 million. The two deals we have signed under our private equity-led strategy qualify as large deals. Both are multi-year engagements and are comfortably above the USD 3 million threshold we have set for ourselves. The other large opportunity I referred to is a more traditional, substantially larger engagement. I would not want to set expectations around it at this stage, but it is a multi-year opportunity with the potential to generate tens of millions of dollars annually. It is being developed over a period of time. This is not a conventional RFP-based approach; it is an opportunity that we are building towards, with the potential to become a multi-million-dollar engagement relatively quickly. What is your assessment of discretionary technology spending at the moment? Are you seeing any improvement in spending appetite among customers, particularly in the US and Europe? I have always had a different view of the term discretionary spending. These are not really discretionary requirements. Technology has become so integral to businesses that companies and customers cannot operate or survive without it. Healthcare companies have increasingly become health-tech companies, while insurance companies have become insurance-tech companies. When technology is so deeply embedded in the way businesses operate, it is difficult to describe spending on it as discretionary. AI has given customers another reason to wait and watch. At best, customers can postpone certain investments. The question is how long they can keep postponing them. Typically, that period cannot extend beyond a year or a year-and-a-half, and that is how the industry has been functioning. However, AI has given customers another reason to wait and watch. They recognise that this new technology could fundamentally change the way businesses operate. The underlying business models themselves could change, which means the software and platforms that companies have already built may also need to evolve. That uncertainty is one of the risks the industry is dealing with today. Cybersecurity has been in focus over the past one month, with several major attacks and security incidents making headlines. Does this create an opportunity for IT services companies? How is Happiest Minds looking at this opportunity? Absolutely. It is an opportunity for us. Our solutions, including Ellipse and SecAIGenie, are positioned at the intersection of the technology requirements and the threats that organisations are facing. We have been investing in and building our security capabilities over several years. Our IMSS business has been performing well and grew 12.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) during the period. Approximately 40 per cent of our IMSS business comes from security. So, cybersecurity has been delivering results for us. This is not an area we have suddenly entered because it has become a topical issue following the attacks witnessed over the last three or four months. It has been a longstanding area of focus. At the same time, threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, which means the tools and technologies required to prevent and address them must also become more sophisticated. Happiest Minds has been reporting its Generative Business Services (GBS) business separately. How should investors look at AI revenue? Is AI revenue integrated into the other deals you are pursuing, or should GBS be considered a separate measure of the company's AI business? Could the overall AI-related revenue actually be larger than what is reported under GBS? This is something I have been trying to communicate over the last couple of quarters. When GBS was initially introduced, we could segregate some of the activities and report them separately. However, as we go deeper into AI, it is becoming part of almost every solution we offer. Every proposal we submit has AI embedded in it in some form. Therefore, I am not sure how we can continue to look at GBS as a completely separate representation of our AI business. We are currently making an attempt to report it separately, but at some point, AI will become part of almost everything we do. That is what it means to be an AI-first company. GBS itself is not synonymous with AI. At the same time, much of what we do can qualify as GBS. We need to work through the distinction between how we organise the business and how we report it financially. We will need to do some more work on this and come back with greater clarity. BW Reporters The author is Regional Editor (Technology & South) at BW Businessworld.

Happiest Minds Q2 results: profit rises 15% to Rs 62 crore; revenue up 12% to Rs 645 crore. PTI Last Updated: Nov 03, 2026, 06:45:00 PM IST Happiest Minds Technologies has seen a 15.12% rise in consolidated net profit for the September quarter FY27. Revenue from operations also increased by 12.5% compared to the previous year. The company announced an interim dividend of Rs 3.05 per equity share for the 2026-27 fiscal year. An exceptional charge was included in the quarter's results due to a proposed merger with ITC Infotech. Happiest Minds Technologies has reported a 15.12 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 62.19 crore for September quarter FY27. The Bengaluru-headquartered company had posted a net profit of Rs 54.02 crore for the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing. * Happiest Minds * ITC CLOSED - 03:58 PM | 03 Nov 2026 5.36 (1.75%) Mean Recos by 5 Analysts Strong Sell Strong Buy Unlock Stock Report Key Metrics * PE Ratio (x) 21.25 * EPS - TTM 14.65 * MCap (₹ Cr.) 4,739.55 * MCap Rank 29 * PB Ratio(x) 2.76 * Div Yield(%) 0.00 * Face Value(₹) 2.00 * Beta - * 52W H/L 520 / 295 You May Like Revenue from operations rose 12.5 per cent to Rs 645.43 crore, from Rs 573.57 crore in Q2 FY26. Sequentially, profit declined 8 per cent, while revenue rose 2.7 per cent. "Our strong results reflect the continued strength of our client relationships and our focus on disciplined execution. Enterprises are increasingly looking for partners who can bring together deep domain understanding, engineering capabilities and AI-led transformation to deliver measurable business outcomes. With the complementary capabilities that ITC Infotech brings to the table, we are excited at the potential to add further value to our customers and deepen our relationship," Joseph Anantharaju, Co-Chairman & CEO, said. The quarter's results included an exceptional charge of Rs 3.98 crore incurred towards the company's proposed merger with ITC Infotech, the filing said. ITC Infotech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd, will merge with Happiest Minds Technologies to create an AI-first enterprise with a USD 1 billion turnover by FY28. As a precursor to the merger, ITC Infotech will acquire a 22.10 per cent stake from Happiest Minds promoter Ashok Soota and Ashok Soota Medical Research LLP. Following the stake purchase, Happiest Minds will be amalgamated with and into ITC Infotech. The company's headcount stood at 6,466 at the end of September, compared with 6,532 at June-end and 6,554 a year earlier. The board declared an interim dividend of Rs 3.05 per equity share of face value Rs 2 for 2026-27. The record date is November 6, and the dividend will be paid on or after November 17.

Happiest Minds Q2: Net profit rises 15.1% YoY to ₹62.19 Cr on 12.5% revenue growth; declares ₹3.05 interim dividend. Happiest Minds posted 12.5 percent revenue growth in Q2 FY27, declared a Rs. 3.05 interim dividend and said its ITC Infotech merger remains on schedule. 03 Nov 2026 11:56 IST The AI-first digital engineering company has delivered another quarter of double-digit revenue growth, with profits rising faster than sales. A fresh dividend rewards shareholders, while a major merger inches forward. Yet one key profit measure slipped from the previous quarter, and investors are watching closely to see what comes next. The Nifty 50 traded at 23,630, up 0.82%, while the Sensex rose by 0.95% to 76,410 on Tuesday. Following this, the shares ofHappiest Minds Technologies Ltd are trading at Rs. 303.50, down 0.78 percent on Tuesday. The stock touched the intraday high of Rs. 309.40 after opening at Rs. 305.90 before slipping to a low of Rs. 302.55. The company commands a market capitalization of Rs. 4,623.82 crore. What happened this quarter. Happiest Minds Technologies posted stable results for the second quarter of FY27 on 2nd November 2026 with revenue from operations increased by 12.5% year-on-year to Rs. 645 crore. The Bengaluru-based company added that they improved their operating margin to 18.5%. The interim dividend of Rs. 3.05 per share was declared by the board of directors of the company with a record date of 6th November. The quarter saw seven new clients added to the books of the company, taking the total active client base to 311. The management took the opportunity to update investors on their merger with ITC Infotech, which is progressing well. Why this matters for the company. The numbers were positive as profitability improved. The operating margin improved by 22.4% year-on-year to Rs. 119 crore with increased utilization at 81.8% and a decline in attrition at 14.3%. Adjusted PAT grew by 20.7%, indicating that there is good cost control in place despite an increase in financial expenses to Rs. 31 crore. However, net profits declined by 8.0% from last quarter due to a merger related expense of Rs. 3.98 crore. Days Sales Outstanding has increased to 101 from 92. The merger with ITC Infotech, which aims to get to US$1 Billion revenues by FY28 still needs to clear regulatory and court approvals. This adds some risk to the deal execution with the final listing scheduled for November 2027. Financial performance. Looking at the quarterly results of Happiest Minds Technologies Limited, the company's consolidated revenue from operations increased by 12.5 percent YoY, from Rs. 573.57 crore in Q2 FY26 to Rs. 645.43 crore in Q2 FY27, and grew by 2.7 percent QoQ from Rs. 628.51 crore in Q1 FY27. Happiest Minds generated 76.7 percent of its revenue from Product and Digital Engineering Services, 17.9 percent from Infrastructure Management and Security Services and 5.4 percent from Generative AI Business Services in Q2 FY27. By geography, the Americas contributed 56.3 percent, India 18.0 percent, Asia-Pacific 9.0 percent, the rest of the world 8.8 percent and Europe 7.8 percent. In Q2 FY27, the company's consolidated net profit increased by 15.1 percent YoY, reaching Rs. 62.19 crore compared to Rs. 54.02 crore during the same period last year. As compared to Q1 FY27, net profit declined by 8.0 percent from Rs. 67.60 crore. Adjusted net profit, which adds back the merger cost and amortization, rose 20.7 percent YoY to Rs. 79.11 crore. Basic earnings per share increased by about 14 percent and stood at Rs. 4.1 as against Rs. 3.6 recorded in the same quarter of the previous year, FY26. Adjusted EPS climbed 17.7 percent to Rs. 5.25 from Rs. 4.46. Company overview. Happiest Minds Technologies Limited is a Bengaluru-headquartered, AI-first digital engineering company listed on the BSE and NSE. It serves over 310 active clients, including 95 billion-dollar corporations, across 47 offices in 16 countries. Its work spans product engineering, generative AI, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and analytics for banking, education, healthcare, hi-tech, retail and industrial customers, supported by about 6,466 employees worldwide.