Global investors pick minority stake in QuEST for USD 350 mln

Engineering outsourcing firm QuEST Global Services today said global investors Bain Capital, GIC and Advent International have together picked up a minority stake in the company for about USD 350 million (about Rs 2,398 crore).
These firms have completed the purchase of the stake held by an affiliate of global private equity firm Warburg Pincus (which invested in 2010) and certain other shareholders.
The deal values the firm at about USD 1 billion.
"We are one of the most trusted global engineering partners for our customers. We have seen tremendous growth in the last few years and are on track for meeting our target of USD 1 billion in revenue by March 2020," QuEST Chief Financial Officer Rajendra Kumar Shreemal told PTI.

With revenues of about USD 385 million, QuEST's service portfolio includes mechanical, embedded and engineering software offerings across high tech industries like aerospace, transportation, energy and medical devices.
Shreemal said the company is looking at growth through both organic and inorganic routes to reach its target.

According to industry body Nasscom, India's engineering
R&D and product development segment has clocked 13 per cent growth in the last five years and has been the fastest growing.
It is expected to grow at 12 per cent in FY'2016 to an estimated USD 22.4 billion from USD 20 billion in FY2015.
"QuEST has demonstrated the ability to scale accounts in a fragmented industry by becoming the core engineering partner to most of the top global firms in its target industries," said Pawan Singh, a Managing Director of Bain Capital Private Equity.

Credit Suisse acted as the sole financial advisor to QuEST.
Set up in 1997 by Aravind Melligeri and Ajit Prabhu, QuEST is headquartered in Singapore and has offices across 30 locations and has clients including Rolls-Royce, Airbus SA and General Electric Co.
It has over 7,600 employees with almost half of its engineers based in its facilities in Bengaluru, Belgaum and Thiruvananthapuram.
Analysts stimate engineering services outsourcing revenues to be close to USD 40 billion by 2020 as global enterprises tap into the talent pool here to optimise cost and increase efficiency.
"Spend is being driven by increasing interest in industry 4.0, smart factories, smart cities, IoT, connected devices. There is an increasing demand for embedded and software content across all verticals," Shreemal said.