Business process outsourcing firm Firstsource’s recently appointed managing director and chief executive officer, Matthew Vallance, will be focusing on building domain capabilities within the company to leverage its position in the US, UK and India and also enter new areas like Australia.

Vallance took over the helm on July 27, after Ananda Mukerji said he was stepping down. “We think Australia is a great opportunity,” he said. “The Australian market is half of the UK market and for us, UK is 27 per cent of our revenues. So, in that sense, we see opportunity. We have a very small presence, as we have a client in this region. But now we will increasing our marketing activity; we have already hired a country manager,” said Vallance. One of his priorities is to carve out a strategy that makes Firstsource top in the segments it is in.

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Vallance has been with the company since 2002, when Firstsource acquired CustomerAsset. In March 2008, he took on additional business development responsibilities in the US market. After the company’s restructuring in 2009, he assumed responsibility for banking, financial services and insurance, and telecom businesses globally.

Vallance also wants to focus on new service lines. “I think we can expand our presence in the publishing segment. We have again a very small component, probably just about one per cent, but I think we can expand this. This is part of our focus to incubate future business lines,” he added.

For Firstsource, which has over 60 per cent of its revenue coming from onshore centres, increasing its footprint in the US and UK is a given. “We have always wanted to be an outsourcing firm and want to focus on what customers want. In some cases, regulation does not allow us to move work even outside that state. We have announced plans set up a centre in Middlesbrough, UK, for which we will hire 500 people,” said Vallance. The company is also increasing its hiring in Colorado, US.

Both the company’s stock price and outstanding foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) are a concern for him. “The performance of the stock price is a concern but I think the value will increase as we focus more on operations, improve margins and expand. As for the FCCBs, I think they are manageable. We are a cash-generating company,” he said.

For the first quarter ended June 30, the company reported revenue of '490 crore, up 1.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis, and net profit was '32 crore, down 15.6 per cent y-o-y.

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