In a major restructuring exercise, the board of Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. (TCIL) has decided to consolidate its human resources services business into Quess Corp.
Quess, established in 2007, is an integrated business services provider. Based out of Bengaluru, Quess has a pan-India presence with 65 offices across 34 cities along with overseas footprint in North America, the Middle East and South East Asia. It serves over 1700+ customers across four segments - global technology solutions, people and services, integrated facility management and industrials. Quess has over 2,12,500 employees (including Manipal Integrated Services and Terrier Security Services).
The consolidation proposal will entail TCIL shareholders to receive 1,889 equity shares of Quess (of Rs. 10 each) for every 10,000 equity shares (of rupee one each) held in TCIL.
The move is aimed at simplifying the structure and holding of TCIL. It is also intended to bring about a focused approach to management.
Four key verticles
And, TCIL will streamline its businesses into four key verticals namely - travel (outbound, domestic, business travel and MICE), foreign exchange, destination management services and portfolio investments such as Sterling Holiday Resorts Ltd.
The proposal, however, is subject to requisite regulatory and other clearances.
“The last few years have seen the TCIL group make many travel and non-travel related acquisitions - from Quess to Sterling, SOTC, Kuoni Hong Kong, Kuoni’s multiple DMS entities across 21 countries and Tata Capital’s erstwhile travel and forex businesses - now renamed as TC Travel & TC Forex,'' a release said.
“Quess, meanwhile, also made several acquisitions both in India and overseas in line with its own areas of operation. This had created complex structures both at the Quess level as well as the travel group level,'' the release added.
The proposed restructuring recognized that the nature of markets, challenges, competition, opportunities for the human resource businesses were distinct and separate from the travel and travel-related businesses and each were capable of attracting a different set of investors, strategic partners and stakeholders, the release said.
“This restructuring will simplify the group structure, enabling both TCIL and Quess to grow independently and consolidate their positions in their segments with far greater clarity of focus from an industry and growth/opportunity point of view,'' said Madhavan Menon, chairman and managing Director of TCIL.
Post restructuring, TCIL will be a travel-focused company. Quess will chart its own growth trajectory in the high growth opportunity space of human capital and allied services.
“We believe that the proposed restructuring will give our individual lines of business the advantages of flexibility and the integration of size, scale and financial strength to take us to the next level of growth,” he added.
