Aegis, the BPO arm of the diversified Essar Group, will hire about 5,000 people in its centres across the US over the next four months.
“We have expanded our engagements with existing clients, which will result in hiring more than 5,000 people. This hiring will take place in all US cities in which we have operations,” Aegis Global Chief Executive Officer Sandip Sen said.
At present, Aegis employs more than 5,000 Americans across nine centres in the US, serving some of the largest Fortune 500 companies across North America.
These companies have a presence in the banking, financial services and insurance, telecom, healthcare, technology, travel and hospitality verticals.
The hiring is to support its healthcare clients. Aegis is looking to hire bilingual (English and Spanish) speakers and candidates fluent in Russian, Mandarin, Cantonese and Korean.
The hiring would be in Irving and Killeen (both in Texas), Sierra Vista (Arizona), New York, Joplin (Missouri) and Port St. Lucie (Florida) among other places.
Aegis is also planning to expand operations in Asian geographies, even as the BPO arm of the diversified Essar Group has put its stake-sale plans on ice.
Newer markets
The company is exploring the possibilities of venturing into newer markets, including China and Africa, and would be ready for an initial listing in the next 12-15 months.
These would help Aegis increase presence to 16 countries from the present 13 and add another 5,000 personnel, taking its total headcount to 60,000 in the next 12 months.
The BPO firm, with more than $1 billion in revenues, has a go-local strategy for foreign countries and also would look at conducting both domestic and global businesses from these locales. The company is also exploring opportunities to move into China, considered to be a tough terrain by Indian businesses. Aegis has made about 21 acquisitions till date.
Aegis, which is one among the top 10 BPOs in the world, would look at an IPO in the next 12-15 months. This is against its earlier stance, when Essar group was looking at diluting stake and deploying the proceeds in its core projects such as shipping, mining and oil.