Quess Corp revenue grows 27%, firm to buyout 3 companies

BENGALURU: Business services provider Quess Corp announced robust second-quarter numbers and said it is acquiring three companies, one of them in Singapore. The Bengaluru-based company ended the September quarter with revenue of Rs 1,018 crore and net profit of Rs 30 crore — up 27% and 66%, respectively, over the same period last year.

The firm improved its EBITDA margin from 4.7% to 5.4%. Shares of Quess soared by 7% during the day, and have more than doubled since listing in June. With this it has beaten US staffing firm Kelly Services in stock-market valuation with a market cap of $ 1.2 billion.

Quess said it will buy out Singapore-based HR firm Comtel, and Bengaluru-based Terrier Security and Simpliance. Terrier is a provider of security solutions while Simpiance provides labour compliance solutions. Quess will acquire Comtel completely in a phased manner, and acquire 49% stake in Terrier, and 45% in Simpliance.

Quess is spending about Rs 350 crore on the three acquisitions combined. The acquisitions will help Quess post revenue of about Rs 5,000 crore in 2016-17, said Ajit Isaac, chairman, Quess Corp. After the acquisition, the company will have a combined workforce of 1.65 lakh across eight countries.

Each of the three ventures, Isaac said, comes with a unique value proposition. “I am confident that these investments, while driving growth, will also be value accretive to Quess in the long term,” he said.

The acquisitions, he added, will also help his company increase its EBIDTA margin to about 6.5%.