Quess Corp, the ‘business services’ subsidiary of Thomas Cook India, has announced two major acquisitions after purchasing the Asia business of Monster.com and the Indian service center business of HCL Infosystems.
The deal involves purchasing 100% of the Monster business in India, Singapore and Hong Kong and 49% of the Malaysia unit.
Quess Corp will pay up to Rs 30 cr for the service center business of HCL Infosystems.
The Monster deal was announced overnight in the US market by monster.com. The US company said Quess Corp will license the brand name from it.
However, it did not disclose the consideration for the monster.com business but said the ‘enterprise value’ of the purchased business has been taken to be up to $14 mln (Rs 90 cr).
Enterprise value is an estimate of the value of the company for all stakeholders including its creditors and its shareholders.
“The acquisition of Monster is aligned with our ‘Digital First strategy for Business’ and is a strategic investment in that direction whereas the acquisition of Care Business marks our entry into the high growth break-fix market for smart phones, consumer electronics and consumer durables with Pan India presence,” said Ajit Isaac, Chairman and Managing Director of Quess Corp.
The move could increase competition for Info Edge India Ltd, which operates India’s largest job portal naukri.com.
Quess Corp also said it would take over the service center business of HCL Infosystems, which, at one time, used to have the monopoly for running Nokia service centers in India.
The business, being purchased for Rs 30 cr, involves 80 walk-in centers and over 200 authorized service providers. It has a total employee strength of 1,400 and had revenue of Rs 191 cr in the year ended March 2017.
