Spurred by the desire to expand its base in China, Wipro Technologies plans to net at least one big China-based company in 2012 and is looking at verticals like banking, retail, telecom, energy and utilities for such a deal.

“International companies like Nike, which are doing business in China and Chinese companies like Haier, which have gone global, are already working with us. We now want to target local large companies in China, which are the equivalent of Indian public sector undertakings,” said Mr Rajat Mathur, Chief Sales and Operating officer, Asia Pacific and Japan.

New entrant

Compared to its international operations, Wipro is a relatively new entrant in China, having spent only six years there as opposed to twice the time in countries such as Japan and over 10 years in Australia and New Zealand.

The company's strategy for China is the same as it was in other markets like Australia – start with smaller orders, build credibility in the market, and the go for the big kill.

Explaining this in the Australian context, Mr Mathur said, “In 2003, we got an order worth around $10-15 million from an insurance company. In 2008, we bagged a $500-million order from Origin Energy.” Though Mr Mathur didn't specify which companies he was targeting, possible oil companies that Wipro is targeting could include Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation Ltd), which had 2011 revenues exceeding $273 billion or China National Petroleum, which registered revenues of over $240 billion in 2011.

An order from a large company could help Wipro in establishing itself with the Chinese locally.

headcount

The Chinese were quite particular about local support and when such large orders come, Mr Mathur said the company would try and expand its strength in China from the current number of around 1,000 employees to around 3,000-4,000 over the next two to three years.

“There are around 70 engineering colleges in China which are comparable to our IITs and we are hiring from around 20 of them,” he said. But in spite of this, Wipro said that it could face problems with China, said Mr Sanjay Gupta, Senior Vice-President, Product Engineering Solutions. “Wage inflation is high in China.”

> balaji.n@thehindu.co.in

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