Aegis, Essar Group’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) arm, is planning to set up its third centre in Malaysia with an investment of about $4-5 million, as an alternative destination to the Philippines.

The new facility is expected to provide 600 jobs and together with its other two centres, Aegis would be providing employment to 5,000 in the next two years.

“Why we are expanding in Malaysia is that the Philippines as an outsourcing destination is getting a little saturated, and clients across Asia needed another location. Malaysia, which is an important locale for us, is a good place in terms of people skills and infrastructure,” Aegis Global Chief Executive Officer Sandip Sen told BusinessLine .

Offshore destination

The company is also looking at Malaysia as an offshore destination for Australia, which is an expensive destination, while the country’s economy is also going through a bit of crisis, he added. The BPO firm had forayed into the Malaysia with its acquisition of Symphony BPO Solutions Sdn. Bhd in April 2014. At the time of its acquisition, Symphony BPO had 800 personnel; while the company now has two centres with a total employee base tripled to 2,400.

“We are able to get people with multi-language skills in Malaysia, making it the global hub for all Asian languages,” Sen said, adding the company currently services Japanese, Korean, Malay, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Vietnamese, Bahasa, Thai and English.

The company is looking at setting up its third centre, which is likely to open by June, either in Penang or Iskandar (just across border from Singapore).

However, Aegis, which had exited the Philippines operations by selling it to Telepresence, but would look at venturing into that country at an “appropriate time”. “The Philippines is still a large market,” Sen added.

The company already has travel companies, insurance firms, cellular majors and airlines as clientele.

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