iGate Corporation, the $267 million, US-based IT services firm, has sold its Canadian operations for $9.3 million.iGate Corp holds close to 82% in iGate Global Solutions, India.According to a statement issued by iGate Corp, the sale of its Canadian professional services operation was completed during the fourth quarter of calendar 2005. "The transaction concludes our strategic initiative of divesting all non-core operations to focus strictly on our more profitable and faster growing offshore and US professional services businesses," the statement added.According to senior officials of the company, the Canadian operations were mainly into systems integration, and this was the reason for exiting the operations. The company further added that during the past year it substantially completed its client rationalisation process and the quality of its offshore client base has improved significantly."In addition, we have approved initial plans for Phase III of our Bangalore campus expansion. This expansion will add 1,000 seats, and is expected to be completed in 2007. We are optimistic about our long-term growth prospects and look forward to a solid performance in 2006," the company said in a statement. While iGate Corp is exiting the Canadian operations, iGate Global recently announced that it is stepping up its presence in Canada and is targetting doubling its strength to 500 during 2006. Canada is a rapidly growing market for iGate Global. "We have seen a lot of traction around our consulting, IT and finance and accounting (F&A) outsourcing services. Interestingly, Canada is a melting pot of culture and languages. For non-English requirements, there is a distinct advantage with Canada being able to offer this capability as an extension of offshore services," it said. In addition to focussing on IT services and contact centre operations, iGate Global is targetting the Canadian market with its solutions in F&A, insurance and banking space.
