Ashok Soota halves his stake in MindTree

BANGALORE, INDIA: Ashok Soota, former chairman of MindTree, who left the company in January this year to start his new venture called Happiest Minds Technologies, sold half of his 11.4 per cent stake in the company in a block deal on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday.

According to reports, the stake was picked up by Cafe Coffee Day Group owner V G Siddhartha's Global Technology Ventures.

Confirming the report, MindTree said that Soota has sold a portion of his stake in MindTree to one of the group entities of Siddhartha. The company also said that Siddhartha is an existing member of the Board of Directors at MindTree and has supported the firm for over 12 years.

“The move indicates that original investor has abiding faith in the fundamentals of the company and the future,” MindTree said in a statement, adding, “What Ashok does with the rest of his stake in MindTree is his personal decision. We have no additional comments on this.”

At the time of quitting MindTree, Soota had indicated that he was open to selling his stake. However, in March both MindTree and Soota issued a statement clarifying that Soota had no immediate plans for divesting his stake in the company. “I will, in due course of time, divest my stake in a manner which will not jeopardize MindTree,” Soota said that time.

At 4 p.m. IST, shares of the Bangalore-based company, which the market values at $321.32 million, were up 8.77 per cent at Rs. 392.65, after touching an intra-day high of Rs. 430 after the deal. The stock has lost 34 per cent of its value in the past six months.