Mastek gung-ho on growth: To hire 1,500 people for new facility

Prachi Verma in New Delhi

Mumbai-based software services company, Mastek Limited, has earmarked over Rs 25 crore to be invested in setting up a third software development centre in Mhape (near Mumbai) by early 2002.
A part of this fund will also go into the maintainence of its existing facilities. In India, Mastek has two development faclities, one each in Pune and Mumbai.

The company is all set to recruit about 1500 software professionals for this new facility in Mhape, who will work not only for Mastek Limited but also for its global joint venture company with Deloitte Consultancies called Mastek-DC.

“Over the next two years, we are aiming at recruiting 1500 employees in our new development centre which will be operational by early next year,” Mastek Limited chairman and managing director Ashank Desai told The Financial Express.

Further, focussing on the non-English speaking countries, Mastek Limited intends to establish a subsidiary in Switzerland in the next 3 to 4 months. After setting up this subsidiary, it plans to set up more subsidiaries in other non-English speaking countries as well.

“The European market is growing faster than the US, which has been hit badly by the slowdown. For the next two years or so, we will be establishing our presence in the non-English speaking countries like Netherlands and Switzerland,” Mr Desai said.

In the next 12 months, the company also plans to convert its Japan branch office into a full-fledged subsidiary. The company already has six subsidiaries in the US, Belgium, Singapore, Malayasia, Germany and the UK. The company is also actively on the lookout for acquisitions in both the US and Europe and is ready to spend its total reserves of Rs 80 crore.

“We are trying to evaluate various companies in the US and Europe for buy-outs and as such we have no fund limits for acquisitons. We are ready to invest all our reserves (Rs 80 crore) and also raise debt from banks for this purpose,” Mr Desai said.

Mastek earned a revenue of Rs 260 crore in the last fiscal ending July 2001, of which 95 per cent came from the US and Europe while the rest was earned from the domestic market. For this fiscal ending July 2002, the company is aiming for a 15 per cent topline growth.