Infosys sets up second LatAm centre; eyes acquisitions in Europe, US

Infosys Technologies Limited today opened its second Latin American development center in Monterrey, Mexico, even as reports said Infosys BPO is also looking at acquiring firms in Europe and in the US of $50 million to $100 million.

Infosys said its new South American centre would offer a full range of information technology services, including business and IT consulting, business process outsourcing (BPO), packaged solutions implementation and infrastructure management for clients in South America.

Infosys is also planning to hire around 1,200 in the current year for its BPO operations, the unit's chief executive, Amitabh Chaudhry told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

The South American center, managed by Infosys' subsidiary, Infosys Technologies S De R.L. De CV, provides technology services for clients in all industries, including banking, financial services, manufacturing, retail, distribution, insurance, and many others.

"From our first development center opening with a few clients and a dozen employees, we now have some 30 clients and 330 professionals and the future looks muy brillante," said Ashok Vemuri, senior vice president and member of the executive council, Infosys Technologies.

"Our public-private partnership with the city of Monterrey and the government of Nuevo Leon, Mexico demonstrates that such unions create opportunities for the city's very talented new graduates from local universities. And it clearly creates tremendous value for clients around the world who increasingly look to our centers in Latin America for the solutions they need," infosys said in a release.

Both Monterrey facilities provide Infosys with dedicated resources to serve clients primarily in North America, Latin America and Europe with bilingual talent in an agreeable time zone and close proximity. Furthermore, it strengthens the company's global delivery model capabilities with such other development centers in the Czech Republic, Poland, Thailand, the Philippines, China, Australia and India, the release said.

Infosys said it chose to establish a presence in Mexico due to the broad language skills available in the region, its geographical proximity to Canada, the US and Europe. Latin America is a strong emerging market and one where many of Infosys' clients have operations already, the company release added.