Genpact to target Asian clients; says skirts US slump

By Sudipto Ganguly

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Genpact Ltd, a provider of business process and technology services, plans to target more domestic clients in Asia and has not been pinched by the squeeze in the U.S. economy, its chief executive said.

"We want to start approaching local companies ... in India and China," Chief Executive Pramod Bhasin said in a telephone interview.

The exporter of back-office services, which operates in more than nine countries, is looking at opportunities to provide services in financial accounting, analytics, risk management and re-engineering works as the rapidly growing economies mature, Bhasin said.

Export-driven outsourcers, who get a large portion of their revenue from the United States, are increasingly eyeing deals in emerging markets amid widespread fears that a weakening economy will cut into U.S. clients' spending.

Genpact, which went public in August 2007, got about 44 percent of its 2007 revenue from banking, financial services and insurance clients.

But the credit-crunch fueled turmoil currently ravaging financial markets has not spread its tentacles to Genpact, Bhasin said.

"For us, there is absolutely zero impact from this crisis."

While Bhasin admitted that worries that the United States may be heading into, or already in, a recession could hurt Genpact's clients, he viewed the crisis as "a potentially great opportunity for the BPO industry."