India's Infosys to invest $0.5 bln to set up SEZ in Bangalore: report.

India's second largest software services company Infosys Technologies Ltd plans to invest around 25 billion rupees ($0.5 billion) to establish its seventh special economic zone (SEZ) in Sarjapur near the south Indian city of Bangalore, the company said.

Infosys has bought 202 acres of land in Sarjapur to build an SEZ, envisaging an investment of 25 billion rupees, Indian newswire PTI reported.

The company expects to begin work on the project in August or September this year and is expected to be operational by the end of March 2011, the report said.

The facility will generate employment to 18,000 people, the report said.

Presently, Infosys has facilities in the Indian cities of Jaipur, Chennai,Chandigarh, Pune, Mangalore and Thiruvananthapuram.

Infosys plans to expand its seating capacity at these centres by 25,000 in the current year, the report said.

The IT bellwether said it was open to acquire new companies in emerging markets, adding that banking and retail verticals will drive its growth in the future.

The report quoted Infosys chief executive and Managing Director S Gopalakrishnan as saying that the company was continuously looking for acquisitions and had identified certain profiles of companies it wanted to buy.

Source : ibtimes.com