To be honest, I haven’t been paying much attention to India-based Hexaware for quite some time. I had met management in India while I was in equities research, but as the company is a relatively small player in the market (2010 worldwide revenues of $230m) they hadn’t yet appeared on my UK radar.
But what piqued my curiosity to meet up with Hexaware Europe head, Ramanan Seshadri, was recent news of a $25m remote infrastructure management deal with an existing client in Europe (no names, no pack drill). Unlike its much larger peers, Hexaware’s European business – now 28% of total revenues – is heavily skewed to the Continent, with the UK making up a little over 20% of European revenues. But in recent quarters, Seshadri has signed 11 new clients in his patch, 8 in the UK – the mix is starting to change.
You can do the sums yourselves – Hexaware is unlikely to become a ranking player in the UK market any time soon. But it is winning share, mostly while working under the wings of the ‘usual suspect’ SIs. There is still room – and room to grow quite aggressively – in the UK market for small-scale India-based players with well-established reputations. Hexaware is now on my radar.