Mid-tier IT services company Happiest Minds Technologies on Monday announced that its founder and promoter Ashok Soota and Ashok Soota Medical Research LLP will sell a 22.1% stake in the company to ITC Infotech for Rs 1,329.72 crore.

According to an exchange filing, ITC Infotech will acquire a total of 3,36,61,700 equity shares of Happiest Minds in two tranches.

In the first tranche, ITC Infotech will acquire 16.75 million shares, representing an 11% stake, at Rs 390 a share for Rs 653.26 crore. The second tranche involves the acquisition of 16.91 million shares, or 11.10%, at Rs 400 a share for Rs 676.46 crore.

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Following completion of the share acquisition, Happiest Minds is proposed to be merged with ITC Infotech, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

JM Financial acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Happiest Minds and its promoter and promoter entities

ITC Infotech said the amalgamation would create a “scaled, future-ready, AI-first Global Technology Services Enterprise with $1 billion revenue by FY28”.

“I am delighted that after the completion of legal formalities, Happiest Minds will become an important part of a larger organisation through its amalgamation with ITC Infotech,” Soota, chairman and chief mentor of Happiest Minds Technologies, said.

He said the two companies were aligned on values and their vision for the future, while their complementary business portfolios would create synergies.

“We believe that ITC Infotech is the best partner for Happiest Minds to fulfil its destiny and we are pleased that our team will have a welcoming new home,” Soota added.

The proposed combination will bring together Happiest Minds’ strengths in digital product engineering, data, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence with ITC Infotech’s capabilities in cloud, analytics, SAP and enterprise transformation.

“Today marks an important milestone in the journey towards Happiest Minds becoming an integral part of ITC Infotech, subject to receipt of regulatory approvals,” Sanjiv Puri, chairman of ITC and ITC Infotech, said.

Puri added that the combination of the two companies’ capabilities and domain expertise would strengthen their ability to deliver technology solutions across geographies.

Manas Chakraborty, managing director and chief executive of ITC Infotech, said the deal was aimed at strengthening the company’s ability to offer end-to-end AI-led transformation services.

“Integrating Happiest Minds’ digital engineering, data, AI, and cybersecurity capabilities with our deep domain expertise, cloud and engineering capabilities will enable us to serve as a full stack AI-led transformation partner,” he said.

The combined platform will have a global workforce of about 19,000 employees. It is also expected to expand ITC Infotech’s US client base across sectors such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), healthcare, technology and edtech.

The exchange filing said the merged entity is proposed to be listed on the stock exchanges.