HCL eyes expansion into Middle East

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - HCL Technologies, one of India's largest IT infrastructural management companies, expects it business in the Middle East to start bringing in annual revenue of $100 million within two years, a company official said on Monday.

Anant Gupta, senior vice president of the company, told Reuters in an interview the company was already operating in Saudi Arabia and expected to announce partnerships in Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates within two months.

"In the last quarter of this year we should see something in Egypt," he added, speaking on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"We are looking at getting $100 million (in revenues per year) in the next 24 months. That's something we want to reach. It will be Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt."

The company earns total revenue of $1.8 billion a year from abroad, 55 percent of it from the United States, and $4.7 billion from all HCL operations, including its Indian home base, he said.

HCL Technologies runs information technology operations for companies, specialising in banking and financial services, often with a customer service component.

Its clients include U.S. electronics test equipment supplier Teradyne Inc., microchip maker AMD and Swedish life assurance company Skandia.

Gupta said the company could make inroads in the Middle East because regional businesses were becoming more globalised.

"You become a 24/7 operation, you face a lot of security challenges, you face government regulations which are not just local government now ... these basic characteristics are what make them amenable to the service model that we bring in. That's why we say it is the right time," he said.

HCL sees countries such as Egypt both as a source of business for its headquarters and as a possible base for running its outsourcing operations for other countries, he said.