MONTREAL — Canadian info tech company CGI Group is looking to expand its presence in India by 45 per cent as it hires more than 1,500 people in the next year to target government business and growing demand from Bell Canada.
Donna Morea, president of CGI U.S., Europe and Asia, told Indian business newspaper Mint that the world’s largest democracy was the fastest growing part of its business.
It already employs about 3,500 workers.
About 1,000 CGI employees in India service calls made to Bell Canada. This is expected to grow “as they transfer more operations to India,” Mint quoted Morea last week.
She said CGI is setting up centres of excellence in India for “core competencies” that cannot be satisfied quickly enough in western Europe and North America.
The company could not be immediately reached for comment.
Tom Liston of Versant Partners said CGI’s expansion plans in India were positive.
“CGI continues to excel at balancing low-cost centre in North America with complimentary operations in India,” he said in a report.
He said clients are increasingly looking to complement core operations in North America by outsourcing pieces of work to India to drive further savings.
“CGI is well-positioned to offer ’the best of both world.”’
Core to the India operations is CGI’s credit solutions suite, which provides automated credit management in banks.
CGI hopes to double the size of its Indian operations, which began in 1991, in the next few years. It has offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
Montreal-based CGI will report its fourth-quarter results Nov. 9, the first since the acquisition of Stanley Inc.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect CGI’s profits will increase 12 per cent to 30 cents per share, up from 27 cents a year ago. Revenues are expected to exceed $1 billion, up from $926 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
On the Toronto Stock Exchange, CGI’s shares gained 14 cents at $15.83 in early afternoon trading.