Cognizant Technology Solutions has added nearly 10 million sq ft of space in India in the last five years. This is to accommodate the large number of employees recruited every year by the company for its development centres.
In Chennai alone, the company has added nearly 10 lakh sq ft of space in the last five years. In fact, Chennai has the maximum number of centres (12) of Cognizant in India.
For the Nasdaq-listed company, the key metrics of revenue, total employees and real estate, almost tripled in the last five years. The number of development centres for the US-based software company has increased to 48 from 40 five years ago.
Cognizant has over 800 clients and compete for business with Indian companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies. It has witnessed spectacular growth year-on-year backed by a well-planned real estate programme in India where over 90 per cent of its employees work. The company also has development centres in China, the Philippines and Singapore.
In February 2011, Cognizant announced plans to invest more than $500 million from 2011 through the end of 2014 to expand its real estate construction programme in India with the addition of over 8 million sq ft.
In May 2012, the company increased its investment on real estate construction programme by nearly $200 million to take it to a total of $700 million from 2011 through the end of 2015 for adding approximately 10.5 million sq ft.
A company spokesperson said that the real estate development programme is focused on creating additional software development and training facilities in regions designated as Special Economic Zones in: Chennai, Pune, Coimbatore and Kolkata.
In addition to the construction of owned facilities, Cognizant continues to actively lease additional facilities throughout India to meet its future staffing requirements.
“We do not break up our capex country-wise or segment-wise,” he said.
The spokesperson said that in 2012, the company’s overall capital expenditure (not just real estate) totalled $334 million. For 2013, the overall capital expenditure (not just real estate) is expected to be around $400 million.
In the March 2013 quarter alone, Cognizant spent $72.2 million on capital expenditure, he said.