The Hindu Business Line : HCL's BPO arm plans expansion in E. Europe

Representatives from HCL's BPO, software services and infrastructure service divisions would visit six countries, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, to identify a location.

MR N. RANJIT

Chennai , Sept. 18

HCL Technologies BPO Services Ltd, a subsidiary of HCL Technologies Ltd, is expanding into eastern Europe, according to its President and CEO, Mr N. Ranjit.

Representatives from HCL's BPO, software services and infrastructure service divisions would visit six countries, including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, to identify a location.

The location would be decided in a month. It is too early to comment on the investment or the number of people to be recruited. It would be a greenfield project, and the centre is likely to come up in 2007, he said.

The Eastern Europe centre would be for customers seeking multi-lingual BPO services. Some of the American clients having presence in eastern Europe, which provides cost-effective options for offshoring, want HCL to set up a multi-lingual BPO facility there.

Rates in northern Ireland are six times higher than in India, but 15 per cent lower than mainland UK and 25 per cent lower than continental Europe.

Costs in eastern Europe would be more or less similar to northern Ireland, and the delegation would study various issues, including costing, he said.

Acquisition

On the planned acquisition in the US, Mr Ranjit said the company was pursuing it and willing to pay as high as $100 million (Rs 450 crore).In the last four months, the company was busy in acquiring an Australian BPO company. However, the company lost to venture capital companies over pricing, he said.

HCL Technologies BPO would now explore the US for a possible acquisition, which would be in the transaction-based services. "We have identified a few companies and would like to do the acquisition as early as possible," he said.

Revenue

Starting with revenues of $0.8 million in 2001-02, HCL Technologies BPO reported revenues of $80 million (about Rs 360 crore) for fiscal ending June 2006. The northern Ireland centre's revenue was $52 million. According to Mr Ranjit, 98 per cent of the company's revenue came from the existing clients — the company has 35 clients. "We hope to continue and sustain this growth," he said.

It may be recalled that in 2001, the company took over the Apollo contact centre in Belfast from British Telecom. In February last year, it acquired the assets of the former AnswerCall Direct Contact Centre in Armagh, northern Ireland.

Manpower

Mr Ranjit said the company currently has about 9,000 employees in India and 2,000 in northern Ireland (in Belfast and Armagh). It has 12 delivery centres - five in Delhi/Noida, three in Chennai, two in northern Ireland, one each in Kuala Lumpur and Bangalore. HCL is the largest BPO company in northern Ireland, he said.

In Chennai, the company plans to add 1,00,000 sq ft of space to have about 1,500 seats, he said.

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