Carlyle-backed Quest Global plans India IPO next year, CEO says

Mumbai, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Singapore-headquartered ‌engineering services firm ​Quest ​Global is looking to go public in India in the next 12 to 18 months, betting on rising demand from ‌energy and defence clients to fuel growth, its co-founder and ⁠CEO told Reuters.

The Carlyle-backed firm is seeking to ride a global move towards more complex ‌hardware-embedded software services as traditional ‌IT slows.

The planned listing reflects investor appetite for India's Engineering, Research & Development segment, which offers technology support to global hardware-oriented industries such ​as data centres and self-driving tech. The segment accounts for around one-fifth of India's $315 billion IT industry.

"The energy sector is going to grow ⁠quite a bit because all the data centres have to be powered by energy," CEO Ajit ​Prabhu said on the sidelines of the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum in Mumbai this week.

This marks the first ​time Quest Global has publicly disclosed its ‌IPO plans. Prabhu said the firm hasn't decided whether the offering would involve a sale by existing investors, a ⁠fresh issue of shares, or a mix.

Quest Global expects revenue to rise to $2.5 billion over the next five years from $1.1 billion last year — an average annual growth ⁠rate of about 20%. It is also in the process of shifting its headquarters ​back to India through a reverse flip.

Prabhu said engineering R&D firms would outpace traditional IT services companies.

"(The) next five to ten years, in my opinion, are like ‌a time for engineering renaissance," Prabhu said. "It is a massive opportunity to bring together all of these technologies (including) chips, ‌telecom, internet and AI."

ER&D has been growing quicker than the wider sector; ⁠industry body Nasscom estimates a ‌6.8% growth to $63 billion in ​fiscal 2026, outstripping the core IT services sector's 4.2% growth.

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and ‌Sahal Muhammed)

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