The Indian arm of Louis Berger, the American full-service engineering, architecture, planning and professional services firm, is looking at expanding its operations in Asia where it sees ‘vast’ potential for growth, said a top executive.
“We are looking at several Asian countries where we can grow and expand. The team in India is responsible to grow operations in Asia. We are now planning to bid for projects in Bangladesh, Thailand and Philippines,” said Shefali Saxena, chief operating officer, Asia, Louis Berger.
“So we are looking at countries in Asia in a big way. But since so much is happening in India we are currently focussing on India,” she added.
The company is expected to enter the new markets soon and will hire teams locally to execute the projects. “The process of bagging the contracts are on,” she added.
Louis Berger, which has a global revenue of $1 billion, runs a sizeable business in India, but Ms. Saxena declined to reveal any numbers. “Over the years we have been growing very well and expanding tremendously. We are looking forward to higher growth due to the infrastructure focus by the present government,” Ms. Saxena said.
‘Two years of growth’
In India, the company is into designing of bridges, tunnels, highways, roads, metros and mass transit, smart cities and aviation related projects. “The last couple of years have been years of growth and expansion,” she added.
The company, which has 600 people working in India, is planning to hire more.
“We are looking for talent in India. We will be hiring a couple of hundreds of people, mostly engineers, depending on the rate of growth.”
She said though execution of infrastructure projects had gained momentum in India, some challenges remained. “The government has taken some bold, systemic steps. Now the speed of project execution needs to be enhanced. People on the ground must be empowered to move the projects. Then, one can see real change,” Ms. Saxena added.
