Infosys to hire 25,000

BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies Ltd, India’s second-largest software-services company, said it plans to make “selective” acquisitions and recruit 25,000 people this year.

Bangalore-based Infosys plans to add capacity in China, Eastern Europe and Latin America, CEO Senapathy Gopalakrishnan said at a conference in Singapore, without elaborating. Infosys may recruit about 1,000 workers in China in the next two to three years, he said.

“We’re looking at consulting and geographical expansion in Europe and the emerging markets like India and the Middle East,” Gopalakrishnan said.

“We want to be very selective in acquisitions.” The plans aim at narrowing Tata Consultancy Services Ltd’s lead and boost revenue in Europe as customers in the US delay orders.

The Indian software-service provider in July reported profit growth slowed for the fiscal first quarter after widening credit-market losses prompted US banking clients to delay orders.

Net income climbed 21 per cent to $290 million, compared with a 35 per cent gain in the year earlier period.

“There’re some delays in new orders as customers are also concerned about the environment,” Gopalakrishnan said. “There’s however no pressure on pricing or trends toward order cancellation.”

Meanwhile, he also said it is confident it will succeed in its 407 million pound ($713 million) bid for Britain’s Axon Group and that there was no rival offer. “We are confident that our bid will go through, because we believe it is a fair valuation, and we have got the support from the board and management of Axon,” he said.

“As for any rival bids, nothing officially has been communicated to us at this point. We expect the (acquisition) process to be completed by the end of November,” he added. If completed, it would be the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian information technology services firm.