Khera: Double deal

Calcutta, Feb. 26: Aptech Ltd is planning to acquire two firms ? one in the US and the other in India. The US-based firm does not have any back office operations in India and the local company is engaged in business process outsourcing, education and training services.

Plans are afoot to ramp up the learning services division in Pune from 200 to 400 people by the end of this year.

A joint venture with the Malaysian government for information technology training facility is also on the anvil.

The company plans to set up a BPO and IT training services institute in the city. It has shortlisted 3-4 locations for the centre, which will have a built-up space of 3000 sq ft, said Pramod Khera, CEO and managing director. The institute is likely to become operational from next month.

“The US acquisition, as and when it comes, should facilitate client relationship there. BPO training has become significant, as out of a batch of 100 only 5-6 per cent could be absorbed directly, while another 3-4 per cent could be trained. The rest would find it difficult to find a place in the BPO sector,” Khera added. A BPO training centre approximately attracts batches of 20 people every 15 days, pointed out Khera.

The joint venture with the Malaysian government should fructify within the next three months and would follow the same model as is used in China where the company has 200 centres and a 20 per cent market share.

The China model is based on a 50:50 joint venture, while the Malaysian one is yet to be decided, Khera said.

The company, which has two dedicated training centres for Sun in New Delhi and Bangalore, will open a third and the first one for Apple in India.

“The centre will be opened in Mumbai using Arena, the multimedia software training arm of Aptech, and will primarily deal with training people in the post-production software of Apple. Although the software is used by leading studios globally and in India, there is a chronic shortage of trained personnel in the country,” Khera said.