Consolidation afoot in China's outsourcing sector 中国软通动力拟一年内增加一倍员工

By Kathrin Hille in Dalian 2009-09-16

Chinese outsourcing service provider iSoftStone plans to double its staff numbers through acquisitions over the next year, in a sign of the Chinese industry's ambition to compete for business globally.

“We have 7,000 employees now, but we plan to have at least double that number a year from now,” Liu Tianwen, chief executive, told the Financial Times.

Mr Liu said the company would choose acquisition targets based on their potential to give the company access to new clients.

His comments signal that the sector is nearing the level of consolidation analysts say is needed to challenge rivals in India, which lead by a wide margin in the global outsourcing business.

McKinsey, the consultancy, said in a report earlier this year that Chinese outsourcers had the potential to grow into serious competitors to their Indian peers, but added that the industry in China was still too fragmented.

Mr Liu said the industry was about to change. “Our top 10 players are all pretty much the same size,” he said. “There has to be consolidation.”

China had more than 3,300 companies providing outsourcing services to multinationals last year, but the total contract volume was just $4.7bn, less than 10 per cent of global outsourcing revenues.

In March iSoftStone acquired two smaller rivals in southern China, Sidaronghe and MCDL-Frontline. The move brought iSoftStone new business from Huawei, the fast-growing telecom equipment maker.

Neusoft, China's largest software maker, which is also among the country's top five outsourcing service providers, is similarly ambitious.

Last month it acquired the mobile phone software development and testing business of Sesca, the Finland-based outsourcing firm, to give it a better base to target potential customers in Europe.

Last year iSoftStone had $89m in revenues. Neusoft had $543m, but less than $200m of that came from the outsourcing business. Other leading Chinese outsourcing providers include VanceInfo, Chinasoft and hiSoft.

中国外包服务提供商软通动力(iSoftStone)计划在未来一年内通过并购将员工人数增加一倍，这标志着中国外包服务业参与全球竞争的雄心。

软通动力首席执行官刘天文向英国《金融时报》表示：“我们现在拥有7000名员工，但我们计划在未来一年内将这个数字至少翻一番。”

刘天文称，公司将依据提供新客户资源的潜力，来选择并购目标。

他的言论标志着，中国外包服务业正日益接近分析师所称挑战印度同行所需的整合水平。印度在全球外包行业中遥遥领先。

咨询公司麦肯锡(McKinsey)在今年早些时候的一份报告中指出，中国外包企业有成长为印度同行强劲竞争对手的潜能，但补充称中国的外包业依然过于分散。

刘天文表示，这个行业即将发生变革。“我们这个行业的十大领军企业规模相差无几，”他表示。“必须进行整合。”

去年，中国为跨国企业提供外包服务的公司超过3300家，但合同总额仅为47亿美元，还不到全球外包业收入的10%。

今年3月，软通动力并购了华南地区两家规模较小的竞争对手——四达荣合和环亚先锋(MCDL-Frontline)。此举让软通动力从快速发展的中国电信设备制造商华为(Huawei)获得新业务。

中国最大的软件制造商东软公司(Neusoft)同样雄心勃勃，该公司也是中国五大外包服务供应商之一。

上个月，东软并购了芬兰外包公司Sesca的手机软件开发测试业务，从而为吸引欧洲潜在客户赢得一个更好的基地。

去年软通动力的营业收入达到8900万美元。东软为5.43亿美元，但其中仅有不到2亿美元来自外包业务。中国其它主要外包服务供应商包括文思信息技术有限公司(VanceInfo)、中软国际(Chinasoft)和海辉软件国际集团(hiSoft)。

译者/管婧