BENGALURU (Reuters) – Shares of Tech Mahindra Ltd rose nearly 10% on Monday after Indian IT services firm Infosys Ltd appointed veteran Mohit Joshi as its new general manager and chief executive officer.
Joshi has been with rival Infosys for 22 years and is currently the company’s president. He will lead Mahindra Group’s IT department for five years from Dec. 20, the company said in an exchange request over the weekend.
He succeeds CP Gurnani whose term expires on December 19.
Joshi’s resignation from Infosys is the second high-profile departure from the company following that of Ravi Kumar, who stepped down as president in October.
At Infosys, Joshi was scheduled to be on leave starting March 11, with his last day at the company being June 9, according to a filing.
Share Tech Mahindra reached its all-time high on Monday, registering its biggest intraday jump in nearly three years and is the top winner on the benchmark Nifty IT index, which is up 0.75% as of 9:47 a.m. IST.
Shares of Tech Mahindra rose 8.2% to 1,148.80 rupees, Infosys fell 1.1% to 1,455.05 rupees.
At least three brokers indicated it is a welcome move for Tech Mahindra.
According to ICICI Securities, Joshi has positive credentials leading sales, operations and transformation for Infosys and has been executive responsible for all major deals across the company.
However, the brokerage still maintains a “downgraded” rating on Tech Mahindra, stating that the company has room to improve its digital capabilities and will need to invest in them to restart growth.
The current average rating of 39 analysts for Tech Mahindra is “buy” and the median price target is 1,143 rupees, according to data from Refinitiv.
(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Eileen Soreng)
