It's a vote of confidence in the company: P R Chandrashekhar

Interview with Chief Executive Officer, Hexaware Technologies

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For P R Chandrasekar, CEO of Hexaware Technologies, the investment of Baring Private Equity Asia is a validation of his strategy and vision for the company. Chandrasekar who joined Hexaware in 2008 from Wipro (where he headed the $3 billion business in US and Europe), taking the company on a growth trajectory was a new challenge.

As he starts addressing employees on the new development in the company, in his first interaction with media after the deal, he tells Shivani Shinde Nadhe about the changes after Baring PE Asia comes on board.

As the CEO of the company how do you see Baring's entry into the company?

I think this is an important development in the life of the company. We have a PE firm investing a possible sum of $465 million in the company; one of the largest PE deals in the Indian IT Industry. 

That is an incredible vote of confidence in the company. We now look forward to taking the company to greater heights along with Barings Asia.

How have clients and employees taken to the news? Were they aware of this deal?

We are actively communicating this development to key clients and to our employees. The feedback has been constructive so far. We will continue with our communication initiatives through a series of Open Houses, Town Hall sessions with our employees globally. My leadership team is reaching out and informing our clients proactively too.

We do not expect this investment from Barings Asia to impact our clients and our employees. If anything, this gives us an opportunity to make more investments and enrich the experience of all our key stakeholders such as employees and clients with Hexaware.

Generally PE on board means more access to business and new clients. Do you think Baring gives you that opportunity?

It is a little too early to assess Baring’s contributions today. Having said that, we remain positive that Barings will contribute to the company’s development in multiple ways including business development, aiding in inorganic initiatives and we will collectively strive to improve to be best in class.

This is Barings Asia’s largest investment in India till date. This strengthens our resolve to work closely with Barings Asia to drive the next leg of the growth journey at Hexaware.

Though it is business as usual, do you have any key focus areas as a new investor comes on board?

Barings Asia firmly believes that the company has an experienced management team, excellent customer relationships, a consistent track record and the ability to provide diverse services on a global scale. We at Hexaware will continue to drive the company to deliver healthy revenue growth at robust profitability levels.