Nortal buys Bulgaria's Questers for 8.7 mln euro to grow US, UK footprint

Sofia-based Questers, which employs over 300 staff, will be merged into Nortal's outsourcing and team augmentation business known as pwrteams, broadening its access to top-tier talent and building cross-border dedicated IT and engineering teams, Nortal said in a press release.

Bulgaria is the latest location being added to the subsidiary's service centres in Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, Lithuania, Estonia and Mexico. Nortal launched pwrteams in 2022, after working out a new business model of outsourcing and team augmentation following its purchase of German consulting and software engineering company Schuetze.

"The Questers acquisition strengthens our pwrteams business that is focused on building dedicated cross-border teams for our customers. The acquisition will add market presence in the US and UK and complement our strong organic double-digit growth over the last 5 years," Nortal CEO Priit Almae said.

The acquisition comes at a time when Nortal, which developed a third of Estonia's e-government platform, continues to expand its presence in Europe and North America, according to a separate statement by the Estonian Fortune 500 company.

Nortal recently set up a delivery centre in Guadalajara, Mexico, for proximity to clients in North America. Earlier this year, it also set foot on the UK market, and is looking to accelerate in other new growth markets like Saudi Arabia and Canada. The company grew its revenue by 45% year-on-year in fiscal 2022 ending June 30, to some 190 million euro ($202.6 million).

Founded in 2007 by Bulgarian and British entrepreneurs, Questers provides cross-border IT support and related services to commercial sector clients in the UK, US, Germany, Belgium, Norway and Switzerland. The company booked adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 1.3 million pounds on revenue of 13.1 million pounds in the fiscal year to March 31, according to the vendor's statement. Gross assets stood at 7.6 million pounds.

In a separate filing published on the London Stock Exchange, TPXimpact Holdings said the disposal is part of a strategic move to shift focus on the UK public sector and the broader digital transformation market. The company will use as much as 5 million pounds of the proceeds to repay debt, with the remainder to be used to fund new investment and core capabilities growth.

(1 British pound = $1.23/1.16 euro)