CGS opens first office in Singapore
Cap Gemini Sogeti (CGS) has opened a new office in Singapore.
The firm, which has been working with clients in South East Asia on an ad hoc basis for a number of years, is now expanding into South East Asia from this permanent base.
“The economic growth here is projected to be quite something and being a global player and having a client base here we felt we needed to have a position here,” said Mike Magee, director at Cap Gemini Sogeti Asia.
“In manufacturing there are good opportunities, especially in China.
Telecoms is recognised as a growing market – there are also big opportunities in finance.”
The firm has also acquired AQS, a Singapore-based software applications maintenance firm with 80 staff, skilled in Oracle and SAP systems.
“A team of six CAP Gemini Sogeti directors from France, UK, Finland and the US will head up and lead the development of business in South East Asia. They’ll establish business units, sell and do deliveries, with emphasis on retail distribution and transportation,” said Magee. “The idea is that by 1 September we will be 100 per cent here.”
The CGS Asian operation, which will be managed by Jean-Louis Michelet, aims to grow its business in Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia to 1,000 people by the year 2000.
“We’re clearly not going to do that through organic growth, so we’ll be looking for acquisitions on the way. There will be a number of small acquisitions like AQS, rather than another mega one like Hoskyns,” said Magee. “My gut feel is that we will always be looking for companies where there is immediate synergy to ours, a similar skill-set to the one we currently have in Europe. A firm of 80 to 90 highly skilled, bright people.
