New Delhi: GEnpact Ltd, formerly known as GECIS, is embarking on a hiring spree and expects to hire upto 25,000-26,000 people next year. The expects its sales to register $490 million and a top-line growth of 25-30 per cent next year.

Last year GEnpact, which has 20,000 people on its rolls, had declared sales of $404 million.. Diversified U S manufacturer General Electric Co owns a 40 per-cent stake in GEnpact. Most of the company''s clients are in the automotive, energy, retail and IT sectors.

Pramod Bhasin, president of Genpact, said, "We are looking at making acquisitions in the area of finance, accounting, insurance and healthcare." The acquisitions are likely to be in the United States and Britain.

Genpact, which started operating in 1997 as GECIS with just 350 people, has become a back-office success story in India and has attracted hundreds of US companies to the country. The company offers services in finance, accounting, contact centres, underwriting and insurance claims processing.

According to some reports GEnpact is planning to acquire two European financial services and market research companies and plans to invest around $200 million in each of them. GEnpact is also finalising a $25-million finance and accounting (F&A) deal in Germany, in a couple of weeks. Subsequently, the size of the contract is likely to go up to $50 million.

Bhasin said, "For the next 12 months, GEnpact has drawn a comprehensive growth strategy, both organic and inorganic. The aim is to be one of the top 10 global outsourcing players. The firm will foray into newer verticals like health care and telecom in the coming months."

The acquisitions will be funded by debt and the company''s cash reserves.

According to Bhasin GE is GEnpact''s top customer, accounting for 85 per cent of projected 2005 revenue. Last year GE sold 60 per cent of GEnpact for $500 million to private equity firms General Atlantic Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners.

GEnpact has operations in India, Hungary, Mexico and Romania and is stepping up hiring in China to 1,500 in the next two years.

GEnpact has also started operations in Romania.