1. At a Glance – Blink and You’ll Miss the Dividend
Quess Corp is that stock which quietly sits in the corner, pays you dividends like a decent tenant, but the market still treats it like a distant cousin at a wedding. Market cap around ₹3,065 Cr, stock chilling near ₹205, down ~30% in one year, while management keeps saying “value unlocking” with the confidence of a startup pitch deck.
Q3 FY26 numbers? Revenue ₹3,930 Cr, EBITDA ₹80 Cr (↑28% YoY), PAT ₹61 Cr (↑30% YoY). Margins still thinner than tissue paper (~2% OPM), but hey, this is staffing, not SaaS. Dividend lovers got ₹5 interim dividend, pushing yield close to 5%—which is basically FD vibes with equity mood swings.
Debt? Almost eliminated (₹118 Cr, D/E ~0.11). ROE? A modest ~9%—not sinful, not sexy. And just when you think this is a boring services company, management throws a three-way demerger on the table like a plot twist in a daily soap. Curious? Good. That’s the point.
2. Introduction – One Company, Too Many Personalities
Quess Corp is India’s largest staffing company pretending to be four companies in a trench coat. Workforce Management, Facility Management, BPM/Tech, and Product-led platforms—all bundled together, listed as one, and valued like none.
Over the last decade, Quess scaled aggressively—revenues went from ₹1,006 Cr to ~₹15,000 Cr, headcount exploded to nearly 6 lakh associates, and it became operationally critical to thousands of clients. But profits? They jog, not sprint. Margins remain stubbornly low because this is a volume game with compliance headaches, wage inflation, and working capital gymnastics.
The market’s complaint is simple: “Boss, kya ho tum?” Are you a staffing cash cow, a facilities grinder, a BPM tech play, or a job portal experiment? Management’s answer in FY24: Let’s split and find out. Hence, the proposed demerger into three entities—each with its own story, valuation logic, and hopefully, investor fanbase.
Before we judge whether this is genius or desperation, let’s break the business apart—politely, but with sarcasm.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Imagine Quess as India’s biggest HR department on rent.
Workforce Management
(≈72% revenue)
This is the OG business. General staffing, IT staffing, RPO, MSP—basically hiring, managing, paying, and babysitting employees for clients. Associate headcount hit ~498k in Q2 FY25, up from 302k in FY22. The “Collect & Pay” model (clients fund salaries upfront) now covers ~79% of headcount, which is great because Quess doesn’t enjoy playing banker.
Margins are thin, but scale is king. If India keeps formalising labour, this engine keeps chugging.
Operating Asset Management (≈15%)
Facility management, security, food services, industrial maintenance. They manage 360 mn sq ft, serve 3+ mn meals/month, and babysit telecom towers. Revenue per head is inching up, but this is still boots-on-ground, labour-heavy, and margin-light. Think stability, not excitement.
Global Technology Solutions (≈12%)
This is BPM, non-voice BPO, HRO platforms, insurance processing, payslip factories. Revenue per employee ~₹1.2 lakh/quarter—okay-ish. This was supposed to be the margin saviour, but growth has been patchy. Still, this is where “tech multiple” dreams live.
Product-Led Business (≈1%)
Foundit (ex-Monster India), Qjobs, WorQ. Great traffic numbers, great PowerPoint slides, tiny revenue. Optionality bucket. Either becomes valuable or remains dinner-table conversation.
So yes, Quess does everything. Whether that’s a feature or a bug depends on the demerger.
4. Financials Overview – Numbers Don’t Lie, They Just Whisper
| Metric | Latest Qtr (Q3 FY26) | YoY Qtr (Q3 FY25) | Prev Qtr (Q2 FY26) | YoY % | QoQ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue (₹ Cr) | 3,930 | 4,019 | 3,832 | -2.2% | +2.6% |
| EBITDA (₹ Cr) | 80 | 62 | 77 | +28% | +3.9% |
| PAT (₹ Cr) | 61 | 42 | 52 | +29.6% | +17.3% |
| EPS (₹) | 3.68 | 2.80 | 3.46 | +31% | +6.4% |
Annualised EPS (Q3 rule)
Average of Q1, Q2, Q3 EPS ×
