India's Happiest Minds slides as investors fret over lengthy ITC deal closure

Sept 1 : Shares of India's Happiest Minds fell as much as 12.2 per cent on Tuesday after Indian conglomerate ITC unveiled plans to buy a large stake and merge its unit with the IT services provider, fueling concerns over a prolonged integration.ITC shares rose as much as 4.7 per cent in early trade in Mumbai.The deal comes at a time when India's $315 billion IT industry is racing to bulk up capabilities to combat AI-led disruption of the software market. The combined entity will set a target of $1 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2028, ITC said in an exchange filing on Monday. The combined entity is expected in the second or third quarter of fiscal 2028, MD of Happiest Minds Venkatraman Narayanan said in an analyst call. "All the approvals are going to take a lot of time. There will be un