Soota to deploy Rs 1,300 cr stake-sale proceeds in healthcare ventures

BengaluruAshok Soota plans to deploy a substantial part of the Rs 1,300 crore proceeds from his stake sale in Happiest Minds to ITC Infotech into his healthcare ventures, Skan Research Trust and Happiest Health, as he seeks to scale initiatives focused on ageing, neurological research and healthcare delivery, said Venkatraman Narayanan, managing director and CFO of Happiest Minds.Soota was unavailable for comment after the transaction.Narayanan said Soota was looking to pare his investment in Happiest Minds to fund Skan and Happiest Health, which he wants to build as part of his legacy.“The requirements charted out in both entities are quite massive. Skan has just set up its first campus, which started operations last week, and he now wants to scale that up to a 2-lakh-sft campus. They have already signed up premises and facilities that need to be converted into physical hospitals. So, just the capital investment required in these entities over the next five to six months, which has already been committed, is substantial,” Narayanan told TOI.Skan recently opened its first 22,000-sft campus in Attibele, Bengaluru, focused on ageing and neurological research. The initiative has partnerships with the University of Cambridge, Quadram Institute of Biosciences and Wellcome Sanger Institute.Soota has previously committed Rs 200 crore towards Skan, with the Centre for Brain Research at IISc and St John’s Geriatric Centre in Bengaluru among its key partners. Some funding will also go to IIT-Roorkee and Nimhans.Through Skan, Soota has created an overarching holding trust and a medical research trust designed to co-exist and operate in perpetuity. “It was very clear that he wanted to leave that as part of his legacy and build a business that could make a difference,” Narayanan said.Meanwhile, Happiest Health is expanding its diagnostics and clinics footprint, with 12 healthcare centres ranging from 30,000 sft to 80,000 sft, Narayanan said.Soota, who founded Happiest Minds 15 years ago, had previously sold shares through block deals. The latest transaction provides him with a strategic route to partially exit the company while retaining a stake in the merged entity.Under the transaction, around 22.1% of Soota’s holding is being transferred to ITC Infotech for cash in two stages. He will retain around 7.55% in the merged entity following the proposed merger.Narayanan said Soota’s decision was not driven by concerns over Happiest Minds’ future or the impact of AI on technology services valuations. “So we looked at the options available to us and what we have ultimately chosen,” he said.The merger with ITC Infotech is aimed at creating a larger technology services platform and accelerating Happiest Minds’ ambition of becoming a $1-billion company.Joseph Anantharaju, executive vice-chairman of Happiest Minds, said the technology services industry was undergoing a structural shift, with AI becoming central to customer strategies, alongside vendor consolidation and growing demand for broader capabilities and scale.Get the latest Business News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.