Omega Healthcare bets on Trump presidency to bring growth, offshoring

CEO Gopi Natarajan believes Trump will act like a businessman to help US corporations turn profitable

India's large outsourcing firms may be hesitant to give a verdict on policies of President-Elect Donald Trump when he gets into office, thanks to his anti-immigration and anti-outsourcing rhetoric that helped him win elections.

But Gopi Natarajan, chief executive of Omega Healthcare is betting on Trump's policies would increase outsourcing and offshoring to countries such as India. His belief is that Trump the President will act like a businessman who will take practical decisions that would help US corporations turn profitable and in turn, generate local jobs and improve the economy.

"I think the US economy will start picking up again despite all the unknowns of the US President-elect. He is a businessman at the end of the day, he is going to do a lot of things to benefit corporations in terms of taxes, be able to give incentives to reinvest in the economy," says Natarajan in an interview. "Why do US companies use us?. Because they want to get more profitable, Trump wants companies to make more money, and they can do it using labour arbitrage."

Trump, during his election campaign, has threatened to impose heavier corporate taxes for companies such as IBM, who have a large base in India, while ranting against Indian firms such as TCS and HCL Technologies. He had also threatened to jail his rival Hillary Clinton if he came to power as also repeal Obamacare, President Barack Obama's healthcare plan to cover more Americans who are uninsured.

After his victory, Trump has attempted to be sober, saying he would not pursue a case against Clinton nor and would retain many portions of Obamacare.

" I think Trump is a businessman and he knows how to create jobs (and) how to make money. America should be run like a business, it is heavily bureaucratic, he is gonna get rid of all that ...absolutely there will be a boon for our business," said Natarajan.

Analysts say that it is too early to become optimistic of Trump and should wait till he takes over the office and define his policies.

"It is difficult to predict whether there may be a major change in regulation forcing such services to not go out of the US. The new administration may implement more local hiring in healthcare BPO services as well," said Sanchit Gogia, chief executive, Greyhound Research.

Omega's revenues stood at nearly $100 million as in November 2016 and it has seen a 32-34 per cent growth during the past year.

"US market is so big (that) we can keep ourselves busy for the next 10 years," Natarajan said.