Business services firm Quess Corp. Ltd, owned by Thomas Cook India, will raise as much as Rs1,150 crore from institutional investors through an institutional placement programme (IPP), it said in a filing to stock exchanges on Thursday.
Quess offers services such as recruitment, temporary staffing, technology staffing, IT products and solutions, skill development, payroll, compliance management, integrated facility management and industrial asset management services.
Thomas Cook acquired Quess in February 2013. The firm was earlier known as IKYA Human Capital Solutions.
The IPP offering will see the company raise primary capital, diluting slightly less than a 10% stake. IPP differs from the other institutional share sale route—qualified institutional placement (QIP)—in that only companies with a promoter shareholding of greater than 75% can use this.
The offering will open on 14 August, the statement said. The company’s shares have been priced in the range of Rs800-820 per share for the offering.
Quess plans to use the funds for acquisitions and other strategic initiatives, funding working capital requirements and for general corporate purposes, according to its issue prospectus.
Investment banks Axis Capital Ltd, ICICI Securities Ltd and IIFL Holdings Ltd are managing the share sale.
Quess, which went public last year in one of the most heavily oversubscribed initial public offerings in history, has historically been an acquisitive company. Its Rs400 crore IPO, launched in July last year, was subscribed 144 times. The company’s stock price has risen by 180% to Rs888.95 since its IPO.
Over the last couple of years, Quess has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy to boost growth. In February, the company said it would acquire Comtel Solutions, Singapore, which develops solutions for banking, hi-tech manufacturing, telecom, logistics and healthcare industries and has clients across Asia.
In January, Quess said it was acquiring a 26% stake in Heptagon Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a machine learning and automation technology company.
Last year, it announced the acquisition of the facility management and catering businesses of Manipal Integrated Services Pvt. Ltd.
In the past, Quess has acquired stakes in companies such as Transfield Services (Qatar) WLL, which operated in the oil and gas market in Qatar, the Indian facility management business of American multinational Aramark Corp., which operated in hospitality and healthcare facility management, Canadian information technology and engineering professional staffing firm Brainhunter Companies Llc and Chennai-based industrial asset management firm Hofincons Infotech and Industrial Services Pvt. Ltd.
Source: Mint