Quess Corp. Ltd. (QUESS:NSI), the India-based provider of staffing and managed outsourcing services, on Friday reported revenue from operations increased by 8.4% year-over-year in its fiscal third quarter ended 31 December. Revenue from operations was INR 48.41 billion (USD 583.1 million).

Executive director and group CEO Guruprasad Srinivasan said EBITDA growth was “attributed to the consistent non-linear growth in our Global Technology Solutions platform, a focus on profitable growth in the Operating Asset Management platform, and a significant reduction of 50% in the burn rate of foundit.”

In Q3 2024, the group saw a non-cash goodwill write off of INR 190 million (USD 2.3 million) and non-controlling interests’ put options impact of INR 80 million (USD 0.9 million) and tax benefit on merger of INR 140 million (USD 1.7 million). Quess Corp also noted that in the previous year, profit after tax include a one-time exceptional gain of INR 535 million (USD 6.4 million) due to the divestment of Simpliance.

Revenue by segment

Within Workforce Management, the group said headcount grew by 17% over the year with key driver sectors being BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), retail & manufacturing.

Within the Product Led Business, the group reported growth in foundit of 9% over the year. The business was rebranded in 2022 and was originally added to Quess Corp through acquisition of  Monster’s job boards in India, Southeast Asia and the Gulf region.

“As part of our corporate structure simplification process for business lines, we have successfully implemented the amalgamation of our fully owned subsidiaries Conneqt Business Solutions Limited, MFX Infotech Private Limited and Greenpiece Landscape India Private Limited, post NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) approval during the quarter,” Srinivasan said.

“In our Workforce Management platform, the successful addition of 13,000 in headcount is due to our vertical focus strategy, which has yielded results in the manufacturing and BFSI sectors now collectively contribute over 45% of our business,” Srinivasan said.

Earlier this year, Quess Corp announced it had received a rectification order from the Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, reducing the original demand of INR 3 billion (USD 36.0 million) for the assessment year 2019-2020 to INR 1.41 billion (USD 16.9 million). The group previously said it had received the $36 million tax demand in October 2023 but claimed the assessing officer did not appropriately adjust tax deducted at source due to technical issues on the income tax department's portal.

Quess Corp shares closed on Friday at INR 493.90 (USD 5.95), down 2.6% on the day. The company has a market cap of INR 74.08 billion (USD 892.15 million).