Advent, Bain eye Warburg stake in outsourcing firm QuEST - sources

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Private equity investors Advent International, Bain Capital and Silver Lake are set to submit final bids for a minority stake worth about $200 million in engineering outsourcing firm QuEST Global Services, said two sources directly involved in the deal. QuEST, which provides engineering outsourcing services to companies in sectors including aviation, automobile, oil and gas, power and healthcare, is headquartered in Singapore but more than half of its staff are located in India. The buyout groups are likely to submit separate, final bids to buy U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus' 20 percent stake in QuEST by end of next week, said the sources, who declined to be named as they were not allowed to speak to the media. The deal is expected to value the company, founded by former General Electric engineer Ajit Prabhu in 1997, at roughly $1 billion as investors bet on a pickup in outsourcing demand for engineering services by western companies, they said. One or two more private equity firms could also submit bids for the stake on offer, and the deal is expected to be closed by end of next month, the sources said. Advent, Bain, QuEST, Silver Lake - a technology-focused private equity firm with more than $26 billion in assets under management - and Warburg did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment. (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Karen Rebelo; Editing by Clara Ferreira Marques)