H&M to hire 1,150 IT engineers

IT services firm Helios & Matheson on Friday said it would hire about 1,150 software engineers in the next fiscal and announced plans to have its own full-fledged corporate office-cum-development centre in Chennai during the period.

The Chennai-based IT company, which has about 35 per cent of its revenues coming from healthcare, plans to increase this segment of business to 50 per cent next fiscal through acquisitions of healthcare-focused IT firms, top company officials said in Chennai.

Helios & Matheson had increased its employee base from 553 last fiscal to 728 people by the end of the third quarter. "We will end this year with 850 people," V Ramachandran, its chairman said. The company would grow to 2000 people by the end of 2005-06, he said.

Ramachandran said the company was also planning to open its own corporate office-cum-development centre in the city. "We are on the look out for a suitable place," he said.

Helios & Matheson, which had achieved a cumulative annual growth rate of 55.6 per cent over the last year, is expected to end the year with a profit of about Rs 18 crore (Rs 180 million), compared to Rs 7.5 crore during last fiscal, he said.

The Chennai-based IT company also has set itself a target of earning revenues of $100 million in 2005-06, through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions, said G K Muralikrishna, its managing director.

The company has already acquired four companies during the last few years, including two acquisitions in the recent months, he added.