CSS Corp has beefed up its management team with several Infosys BPO veterans joining as part of a turnaround strategy that has seen the software firm return to a profitable and healthy growth period.
The California-based company has roped in Suranjan Pramanik as Chief Sales Officer (Americas), Raj Reddy (as Chief HR Officer) and Purnima Menon (as Chief Marketing Officer), who were all previously with Infosys BPO.
“Two years ago, we were at single digit growth with poor profitability. We focussed on improving our non-billed to billed employee ratio, and ditching unprofitable projects. With the new management team in place, we are now looking at becoming a $1 billion company in the next five years,” said T. G. Ramesh, CEO, while addressing reporters here on Thursday.
Mr. Ramesh was brought in as CEO nearly two years ago by the company’s previous investors that included Goldman Sachs, SAIF Ventures and Siera Venture.
All three of these investors, however, exited the company last week by selling their shares to Partners Group of Switzerland, which acquired a majority stake in CSS Corp in a $270 million transaction. The private markets investor also acquired the stakes of individual investors such as former iGATE chief executive Phaneesh Murthy.
In the wake of share sale, Mr. Murthy, who was on the board of CSS Corp, quit as director.
“Partners Group holds a 79 per cent stake in CSS, while individuals and the management own the rest. We have big things planned, with new delivery centres in Costa Rica and China,” said Mr. Ramesh.
With revenue of around $200 million, CSS provides a range of services, including mobility solutions and remote infrastructure management offering on cloud.
With the entry of Partners Group, CSS Corp appears to have put the past firmly behind it. CSS has been through a trying time for quite sometime ever since the ejection from the company of the founders by PE (private equity) shareholders for some still undisclosed reasons.
