Quess Corp to end association with East Bengal

Quess Corp's Chariman and MD Ajit Isaac stated that the investor is already looking at other relevant stakeholders and investors.

Quess came into the picture last year when East Bengal was looking for a patron for its senior team after the departure of its earlier investor Kingfisher.

East Bengal's majority stakeholder Quess Corp is looking to end its association with the century-approaching club. This was made clear by Ajit Isaac, the Chairman and Managing Director of Quess Corp Limited, during an earnings conference call of his company held last week.

Quess came into the picture last year when East Bengal was looking for a patron for its senior team after the departure of its earlier investor Kingfisher.

The Quess Group’s association with East Bengal club ran into rough weather earlier this year just before the Super Cup over issue of participation in the tournament. When Quess East Bengal decided to be a part of the group of protesting I-League clubs, the East Bengal club officials went against its investor.

The club, which is a minority shareholder in the senior team, independently wrote a letter to the national federation – AIFF – saying that it was not a part of the decision to skip the Super Cup.

READ | East Bengal and investor Quess differ on Super Cup participation

The Quess East Bengal team was subsequently hauled up by the AIFF disciplinary committee and was imposed a hefty fine (of about Rs. 30 lakh) for pulling out of Super Cup.

This apparently vitiated the atmosphere between the club and its investor forcing the Bengaluru-based Quess Corp Chairman and MD to announce the decision to “monetise the asset” when he was asked by an analyst about the company’s future with East Bengal.

 “We (have) already started talking to our other relevant stakeholders here that how do I monetise this asset. We have been also talking few possible investors also. So it will take some time.

"I think maybe another 2 quarters, you can expect 2 to 3 quarters, but at the end of this season, we are confident that which is say May to June (2020) …. definitely by end of this season we are sure that we will not be there most probably in that club…,” Mr. Isaac said while referring to a exit plan, in reply to a question from the analyst.

This was further indicated in a post on Monday evening by Isaac on the social media where he said: “Some news reports have been published about the continuity of our relationship with EBFC about which more clarity will emerge”.