Delays in closing acquisitions forced Happiest Minds to revise its guidance down to 12% for its organic growth. It had earlier given a revenue guidance of 25% without making a distinction between organic and inorganic growth.
The new revised guidance is based on an assessment of market trends, said the company’s top officials. Speaking to FE, Venkatraman N, MD and CFO, Happiest Minds, said, “The organic growth modelling that we did showed us a growth between 15-20%, with the inorganic adding for the rest of it.”
Venkatraman added that they expected a certain amount of revenue based on the closing time of acquisitions, whether in Q1, Q2 or Q3. “We had cautioned the market last quarter that we were not able to close the acquisition deals, and had said that we will come back on guidance later.” The company has been in talks with 3-4 companies for acquisitions.
Happiest Minds also announced setting up of its new business unit, Generative AI Business Services (GBS). The new unit will offer full-scale Generative AI offerings across multiple domains. Sridhar Mantha, currently serving as EVP and CTO, has been appointed as the president and CEO of GBS with immediate effect, and will be reporting to executive board member Rajiv Shah.
The existing PES (product engineering services) and DBS (digital business services) businesses will get combined into the PDES business unit. There will be no change in IMSS (infrastructure management and security services). The company will, therefore, retain 3 business units — PDES, IMSS and GBS.
The company said while it will be going to campus this year, the hiring would reflect the current demand environment. The company’s attrition came down to 14.4% in the just-concluded quarter.