Hexaware Technologies may set up shop in Sweden as part its strategy to make inroads into Nordic Europe, a top company official said.
Taking cues from its larger peers, the company now wants to capture a slice of the IT and back-office outsourcing market in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
“As we speak, there is somebody looking to hire people in the Nordic region for Hexaware…we may look at setting up a sales office in Sweden,” R Srikrishna, Chief Executive Officer of Hexaware, told
Srikrishna joined Hexaware as CEO in July, exactly a year after Baring Private Equity Asia picked up a controlling stake in the Mumbai-headquartered company.
Most Nordic countries, especially Sweden, have high cost structures. This is putting pressure on local companies to seek low-cost resources in locations such as India, which will help them cut costs by 30-40 per cent, analysts say.
Moreover, English is commonly spoken in some of these countries, making the region more open to dealing with Indian IT services companies, said Srikrishna. There is also a paucity of skilled technical labour, which augurs well for companies such as Hexaware.
Separately, Hexaware has reported a 12.9 per cent fall in net profit for the third quarter ended September on account of rising costs.
The Mumbai-based company, which follows a January-to-December accounting calendar, recorded a net profit of ₹86 crore against ₹98.7 crore in the corresponding year-ago period.
Costs up“We have upped spends on sales and general investments in the last few quarters as we are investing for future growth,” said Srikrishna.
Direct costs went up by 14.2 per cent during the third quarter to ₹420.6 crore while revenue rose by 8 per cent to ₹670.6 crore.
The company has declared an interim dividend payment of ₹2.35 a share.