“Through this acquisition, Happiest Minds strengthens its domain capabilities in insurance & reinsurance, healthcare and life sciences verticals and product & digital engineering services (PDES) business,” the Bengaluru-based IT services firm said in a statement.
This is the company’s third acquisition in 2024-25 so far, with two acquisitions of PureSoftware Technologies and Macmillan Learning India announced in April.
Aureus, which has a development centre in Hyderabad, is a niche native of Microsoft’s cloud computing platform Azure focused on digital and cloud transformation using data, AI and application modernisation.
“Aureus strengthens our BFSI and healthcare industry groups, enhances our value proposition in these verticals, and contributes to our new customer acquisition initiatives,” said Joseph Anantharaju, executive vice chairman at Happiest Minds. “We are excited at the potential to cross-sell and up-sell infrastructure, security, automation, analytics and GenAI offerings to Aureus’ customers to accelerate Happiest Minds’ growth.”
The acquisition is expected to be completed before the end of June 2024.
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Currently present in the US, India and Canada, Aureus’ last three calendar year revenues stood at $8.3 million in 2023, $7.0 million in 2022 and $5.6 million in 2021.Founded in 2008, Aureus has a leadership team of Indian-origin executives and over 150 employees who will be absorbed by Happiest Minds. Its CEO Abhishek Pakhira will continue to lead the Aureus as a unit under Happiest Minds.
“There is a significant shift in how insurance and healthcare providers are looking at their business, we are seeing a secular trend of developing and executing on a digital transformation roadmap that helps them transform into tech-enabled services companies,” Pakhira said. “Now, more than ever, technology services providers need to combine the understanding of market problems with technology intensity to deliver business outcomes.”
EY acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the sellers of Aureus.
For Q4FY24, Happiest Minds posted a 24.8% rise in net profit and 10.4% growth in revenues. For the full year, the firm’s profits rose 7.5% to Rs 248.39 crore on a 13.7% growth in revenue at Rs 1624.66 crore.
Post results, Happiest Minds’ chairman Ashok Soota said FY25 is poised to be the best year since its IPO in September 2020.
After the acquisition announcement, the stock continued to trade marginally weaker from the previous close, sliding by 0.58% to Rs 817.25 apiece on the BSE at 12.25 pm.
