Countrywide Fin to invest $18m in Hyd

Countrywide Financial Corporation of USA, which has been scouting for a suitable place to establish ITeS operations in India, has finally decided in favour of Hyderabad.

A four-member team of top management led by Michael Keating, senior managing director, Tom Jones, managing director, Vasu Ramaswami, CEO (India operations), and  Gowtham Barai, head, Real Estate (UK), met chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Wednesday and apprised him of their plans.

The chief minister assured all required help to the team and welcomed their decision to establish their operations in Hyderabad. The state government has offered three acres of land in the proposed Financial District near Hyderabad for setting up its own campus.

However, the company will first start its operations in a leased space of over 100,000 square ft in Hitec City employing initially over 1,000 professionals, which would be raised to 2,000 in a span of two years.

According to C S Rao, chairman of APInvest and IT advisor to the state government, Countrywide Financial is planning to invest over $18 million in Hyderabad BPO facility in a one-and-a-half-year period. The company is expected to begin its operations from March 2006.

After evaluating cities like Pune, Bangalore and Chennai, the company zeroed in on Hyderabad through the efforts of AP Invest, a press release said.

Countrywide Financial Corporation, which is a Fortune 200 company, is a provider of diverse financial services in mortgage banking, loan closing services, capital markets, insurance services and banking. 

It is the largest mortgage lender in United States with about $1 trillion, according to the press release.