Happiest Minds sticks to 25% revenue guidance despite sinking shares

Shares of IT company Happiest Minds have declined over 34 percent in the year so far. The share closed today (December 27) at Rs 881, up 0.9 percent from the previous close on the BSE. Venkatraman Narayanan, MD & CFO, Happiest Minds, told CNBC-TV18 that the company is firm with the revenue guidance of 25 percent for FY23.

He said in retail terms he can see some correction in revenues, but as the company does not work with traditional banks, he does not expect much weakness on the revenue front. “That’s what gives us confidence and we are holding on to our guidance of 25 percent for the current year,” added Narayanan.

He added that the only concern can be the slight reduction in revenue in the third quarter of FY23 due to fewer working days.

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“But overall, if you look at this quarter, which is Q3, we have less number of working days, and given the number of holidays, billing or revenues tends to be slightly lower. So if you look at it on a quarter-on-quarter basis, that's the only impact that we are seeing as of now, because of holidays and people taking accumulated leave. There could be some slight reduction in revenues,” he added.

The company, led by Ashok Soota, posted a net profit of Rs 59.4 crore for the July-September quarter, up 33.7 percent from the corresponding period a year ago. Sequentially, the profit grew 5.4 percent. Revenue for the quarter grew 34.4 percent from the corresponding period a year ago and 8.1 percent sequentially.

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Narayanan added that they are maintaining the guidance of 22-24 percent in terms of EBITDA. “Happy to say that we have beaten that in 10 quarters and we have been doing 25-26 percent and as of now we are holding on to that kind of range. I don't see any major concerns,” he said.

The Bangalore based firm’s EBITDA margin in the July-September quarter stood at 26.3 percent, growing 34.1 percent from the corresponding period a year ago.

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