Prem Watsa’s Fairfax acquires additional stake in Ajit Issac-promoted Quess

Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa-owned Fairfax Financial Holdings has acquired additional equity shares in Bengaluru-based services provider Quess Corp. Fairfax will now directly hold 32.35% shares of Quess, an official statement said.

Quess, founded in 2007 by Ajit Isaac, was acquired by travel company Thomas Cook in 2013. Thomas Cook is a subsidiary of Fairfax through an acquisition in 2012. 

The holding company had an indirect stake in Quess through Thomas Cook. After the spinout by Thomas Cook, Fairfax will be buying 2.56 lakh equity shares to increase its direct shareholding in Quess.

Apart from India, Quess has operations in nine countries and a customer base of over 2,000 companies. 

“We consider Ajit Isaac, the founder and chairman and the owner of 22.65% of Quess, to be an outstanding entrepreneur who is in the process of building a great company,” said Prem Watsa, chairman and chief executive officer of Fairfax, in the statement. “We are excited to increase our ownership of Quess and we expect to further increase our shareholding in the future as we believe that Quess will be a great long-term investment.”.

This comes soon after Amazon announced it will be investing Rs 51 crore ($7.4 million approximately) in Quess Corp for a 0.51% stake. 

Quess has been aggressive in growth through acquisitions and has acquired stakes in close to two dozen companies since 2008. The company’s latest acquisition was listed peer Allsec Technologies to boost customer lifecycle management.