Infy looks for expansion in Mexico

Even as the Trump administration is restricting the flow of H-1B visas to IT workers in India, the Mexican government has come forward to extend its support to Indian tech companies.

According to sources in the embassy of Mexico in India, the Bengaluru-based IT giant Infosys is looking for expansion in Mexico. The company already has significant presence in the Latin American country.  

India’s second largest IT services company will be holding active discussions in this regard with Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, governor of Mexican state of Nuevo León, who is visiting Bengaluru between June 14 and 16, sources in the Mexican embassy revealed.

“Infosys is in discussion with the Mexican government to expand its operations in the country. The company already has operations in Mexico” sources told DH. Infosys, through its fully owned subsidiary, Infosys Technologies S de Rl de Cv, has two offices in Mexico — one in Mexico City and another in Monterrey.

Monterrey is capital of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León, whose governor is Calderón. As part of its third region-specific subsidiary after Australia and China, Infosys started its Mexican operations in the year 2007 in Monterrey.

The company’s line of business includes providing computer programming services. The subsidiary provides business consulting and information technology services for clients in all industries, including banking, financial services, retail, consumer packaged goods, energy and utilities.

“The IT company has one of its largest investments in Latin America right there in Nuevo León,” the sources divulged.

As per the Infosys annual report for 2016-17, the fixed investment of Infosys into its Mexican subsidiary stood at Rs 65 crore (17,49,99,990 fully paid-up equity shares worth MXN 1 each).

The subsidiary constituted Rs 128 crore of the company’s net assets on March 31, 2017. The total share of the subsidiary in the company’s net profit stands at 0.3% translated into Rs 41 crore.

“If the US does enforce some of its harsher immigration proposals, for instance, regarding H-1B visas on which Indian IT companies are heavily dependent, we will be more than happy to have Indians relocate to Mexico,” the Mexican ambassador to India Melba Pria had told media earlier.

The company, however, declined to comment on the issue, when contacted by DH.

Recently, top seven India-based IT companies in the US collectively experienced a humongous 37% drop in approved H-1B visa petitions in 2016, when compared with the previous year.

For Infosys, the number declined by 16% (454 petitions), with 2,376 approved H-1B petitions for initial employment in FY16, compared with 2,830 in FY15.