Hexaware plans Rs 150 crore campus in Pune

Pune-based software services company Hexaware Technologies is planning to set up a Rs 150-crore campus at Pune's Hinjewadi IT Park where it will employ around 3,000 software professionals. The facility is expected to be operational by 2009.

Rusi Brij, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, told Business Standard that the company acquired 25 acres of land in the third phase of Hinjewadi IT Park, and would soon start construction work.

"The company recently built a campus in Chennai with an investment of Rs 150 crore. The investment in the Hinjewadi facility will be around that mark," he added.

Brij further said that the company was in the final stages of negotiating a project to develop an application for postal services of an Asian country. He, however, did not disclose the name of the country.

The company would take the acquisition route to leapfrog its business in the US and Europe, Brij said, adding that the target companies for acquisition would be in the $15 million annual revenue bracket, and a client base in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) space.

According to him, the company has a cash position of around $78 million and won't need any external funding for the proposed acquisitions.

Hexaware's acquisition of Focus Five last year helped the former to accelerate the software testing business. The company's revenues from testing services were $13 million in 2006, and is expected to cross $50 million this year.

Income from the segment was $10 million in the first quarter of the present year.

The company's Pune centre has been expanding steadily as the headcount has risen to 500 from 250 initially, and is expected to grow by another 350 over the next few months.

Brij said that the Pune centre would focus on the Japan-based clients and projects in the Java and .Net technology space, in addition to its ERP system implementation business.