Jefferies has downgraded Indian information technology (IT) companies Infosys, HCLTech, and Mphasis to "hold"; LTI MindTree, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Hexaware to "underperform", citing artificial intelligence (AI)-related concerns. Coforge, Sagility and IKS, however, still remain its top picks.
IT stocks dropped in morning trade on Monday, with Tech Mahindra tumbling over 6 per cent, amid concerns over the steep hike in US H-1B visa fees. Shares of Tech Mahindra tumbled 6.45 per cent, LTI Mindtree slumped 5.61 per cent, Persistent Systems dropped 5.51 per cent, Hexaware Technologies tanked 5.14 per cent and HCL Tech fell by 4.24 per cent on the BSE.
Mindtree on Thursday said it will acquire the NxT Digital Business from Larsen and Toubro (L&T) for Rs 198 crore, a move that will enable the mid-sized IT firm to capture opportunities in the IoT and Industry 4.0 space. The acquisition would enable Mindtree to capture opportunities in the IoT and Industry 4.0 market by leveraging NxT Digital Business capabilities to cross-sell and create holistic solutions for new prospects as well as for existing clients, a regulatory filing said. Capability in this space will bolster Mindtree's vision to leverage existing digital strengths and aim to become a 'Go-to business transformation partner' for clients, it added.
Chatterjee said the compNY is not aware of any major client concerns at this point.
Mindtree faces the risk of management change as its largest shareholder is reportedly in talks with a rival technology firm to offload his stake.
'If (by the end of the deal) the talent that owns the customer relationships is not there, will L&T still get the value it is looking for?'
L&T -- which has two subsidiaries L&T Infotech and L&T Technology Services -- is keen to bring Mindtree under its fold to exponentially raise its client base and product offering.
VMUnify, incubated from staffers' idea, to be spun off into an independent company.
"Many people have to be tended here. I have an organic feel to MindTree. A gardener's job is never over," Bagchi told the media, adding that his new role was apt given MindTree's history. Information technology (IT) firms of late have been introducing catchy designations like 'Chief Fun Officer', 'Chief Happiness Officer', and even 'Chief Energising Officer' as they revamp their organisations and the roles of some of their senior executives.
L&T is pursuing a controlling stake of 66 per cent in the mid-tier IT firm, for Rs 10,700 crore.
While the leadership change in Mindtree is yet to happen, there's a buzz that the co-founders of the IT firm may float another company.
In an email interview with Business Standard, Mindtree's co-founder and chairman says the company was designed to outlive the founding team and no such departure is a loss.
Mindtree plans to recommend to its investors not to subscribe to the open offer, citing low offer price, among key reasons. The founders were exploring several other options, including coming out with a counter open offer, with the backing of a financial investor.
The move comes at a time when the traditional software maintenance and support works, once the bread and butter for export-driven IT services business, are slowly drying up.
The Bangalore-based company has revamped itself as it aims to simplify its business structure and focus on being a specialist in certain areas.
MindTree, the Bangalore-based information technology services provider, has bagged the application development services segment of the Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification (UID) project, renamed as 'Aadhaar'. This is the first of the many IT projects that has come up for bidding till date.
The company will grow better than the industry
Ashok Soota, former chairman of IT firm MindTree, on Thursday sold half of his 11.4 per cent stake in the company in a block deal.
In the largest deal in the domestic information technology (IT) space, MindTree Consulting is set to acquire mid-tier outsourcing product development (OPD) and testing player, Aztecsoft, for around Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion). Both are Bangalore-based firms. Aztecsoft has over 2,200 employees and caters to the North American, European, Indian and Australian markets.
To focus on leadership grooming, corporate governance and brand repositioning
Information technology and research and development services company MindTree Consulting plans to float an initial public offer
'I get enormous pleasure from seeing the uplift of an underprivileged or poor person.' 'I feel elated when I walk on the street and see someone who pushes a handcart talking on a cell phone.' A revealing glimpse from Peter Casey's The Story of Tata: 1968 to 2021.
The gauge for the performance of informational technology (IT) stocks soared nearly 5 per cent-most in nearly three years-as growth worries eased following a robust order book posted by bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The Nifty IT index rose 4.5 per cent to close at 30,945. This was the biggest single-day gain since September 14, 2020. Industry titan TCS' shares rose 5 per cent to Rs 3,509.
It is expected growth will primarily be driven by continued demand from the US, a revival in the European market, especially continental Europe, and increased momentum in the adoption of new technologies.
Back home, the Nifty IT index - a gauge of the performance of the IT stocks on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) that has closely mirrored the performance of NASDAQ over the past few years - has lost nearly 2 per cent in CY23.
An innovation-oriented business model ensures exponential growth potential for this IT player.
Honed and utilised in-house for over three years, the engineering major's new arm - L&T-Nxt - will focus on AI, IoT, vitual reality and cyber security among other fields of digitisation.
Siddhartha's knack for value investment dates back to 1995 when he infused capital in Kshema Technologies, which was acquired by MphasiS. He also took an early exposure in Mindtree way back in 1999. Since 1995, he had invested in more than 15 technology companies including chip-designing firm Ittiam Software, and GlobalEdge Technologies, among others, says Debasis Mohapatra.
The Nifty IT has been one of the worst-performing indices on the bourses this calendar year. Rising concerns of a potential global recession, which investors fear can dampen demand for export-facing domestic information technology (IT) giants, have sent the index down over 30 per cent on a year-to-date basis. By comparison, the Nifty50 Index has shed 2.8 per cent during the period, reveals data by ACE Equity.
The advent of internet of things, blockchain, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and self-driving cars has also created huge business opportunities for online training platforms such as Udacity and Coursera.
Ashok Soota of Happiest Minds shares the secret recipe with us.
In 2015, Infosys, under the leadership of then CEO Vishal Sikka, had bought Israeli automation technology firm Panaya for around $ 200 million and e-commerce service provider Skava for $1 20 million. The buyouts were mired in controversy owing to allegation of over-payment apart from not being an ideal fit.
An aggressive rate hike by the US Fed and the possibility of a recession can trigger a slide in these stocks, which will be a good opportunity to buy from a long-term perspective.
Start-ups Zomato, PB Fintech, One97 Communications, and FSN E-Commerce Ventures have entered the large-cap category after the latest reclassification exercise by the Association of Mutual funds in India (Amfi). This comes despite stocks such as PB Fintech (Policybazaar) and One 97 Communication (Paytm) trading below their issue price. Others such as Mindtree, SRF, IRCTC, Tata Power, JSW Energy have been moved from mid-cap to large-cap category.
Mindtree, eclerx and Hexaware are trading at similar valuations to that of the larger peers.
Fifty Indian companies, including job portal Naukri.com, MakeMyTrip and consultancy firm MindTree are vying for the Red Herring Asia 100 award for excellence in technology.
Coming from a family that has a 140-year history of growing coffee, Siddhartha, 59, initially dabbled in stock trading and wanted to work as an investment banker in Mumbai after completing his Master's in Economics from Mangalore University.