NY firm expands Phl unit

MANILA, Philippines - New York-based ExlService Holdings Inc. is set to almost double its workforce in the Philippines by putting up a third site in Metro Manila and another one in Cebu City to cope with growing demand.

EXL senior vice president and country manager for Philippines Jaideep Pradhan said in a press conference that the expansion being undertaken by the company would entail additional 1,500 seat capacity to augment its existing 1,800 seats.

Pradhan said the company would add about 500 seats to its two sites at the Mall of Asia (MOA) in Pasay City.

He pointed out that EXL is also looking for a site in Cebu that would have a capacity of 500 seats and a possible third site in Metro Manila that would also have an initial capacity of 500 seats.

 Unlike other contact centers operating in the Philippines, he explained that the company is focused on specialized services is growing at a slow pace in terms of workforce but growing strongly in terms of profits.

“We are only doing high-end specialized service that is why we are growing slowly but profitably,” Pradhan added.

 Of the total number of workforce, he said about 850 are doctors or US-licensed nurses who opted to work in the company instead of going abroad and leave their respective families in the Philippines.

 For his part, EXL executive vice president and head of insurance and healthcare Rembert de Villa told reporters that the rapid growth over the past two to three years prompted the company to expand its operations in the country.

“The Philippines plays a very important role in our global strategy. Our business here has really grown in the last two to three years,” de Villa said.

EXL vice chairman and chief executive officer Rohit Kapoor said the company is a leading provider of Transformation and Outsourcing services to Global 1000 companies in multiple industries including insurance, banking, financial services, utilities, transportation and travel.

Kapoor pointed out that EXL has a global workforce of 20,000 and operates over 20 state-of-the-art delivery centers in India, the Philippines, US, Czech Republic, Romania, Malaysia, and Bulgaria.

 He added that the company has sales offices in New York, New Jersey, and London.

 EXL is a US company that has been in operations since 1999 and has been operating in the Philippines for more than four years.

Kapoor said the company’s revenues have been growing at a compounded rate of 30 percent per year and is expected to hit $440 million for the 2012 fiscal year.