Italian IT multinational looking to expand in LatAm

Italian IT multinational Engineering is mulling opening new subsidiaries in Colombia, Chile and Peru.

The group is formally established in Brazil (Engineering do Brasil) and Argentina (Engineering de Argentina), from where it serves other Latin American markets. The Argentine subsidiary is subordinated to the Brazilian one, which is a Latin American hub responsible for reporting consolidated results in the region.

However, major projects currently in place could lead Engineering to set up new operations, LatAm chief Filippo di Cesare told BNamericas.

"We have global clients, especially Italian companies, with operations in many Latin American markets. We're now working with important ones from the energy segment, for example, in Colombia, Chile and Peru, aside from Argentina and Brazil," di Cesare said. "As these operations grow stronger, we will replicate this model of formally establishing subsidiaries."

Di Cesare, who has been in his post since January 2016, said Engineering wants to be seen as a significant player in the provision of digital transformation and industry 4.0 solutions. The group's expansion strategy combines organic growth with acquisitions.

Engineering has been present in Latin America since 2008, offering mainly workforce management, HR solutions, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and tax management solutions principally to telcos, auto companies and utilities. Some of its clients include Fiat Chrysler, TIM Brasil and governments.

In Brazil, the group has 150 large clients and over 600 employees, with six offices throughout the country. One of Engineering's biggest contracts – "our largest worldwide in terms of workforce management," according to di Cesare – is with the planning and budget department of Minas Gerais state.

Engineering won a 90mn-real (currently US$27mn) tender two years ago to handle the payroll and workforce management of the state's 600,000 government employees.

Another major contract was with Rio de Janeiro state government for the supervision, control and communications for line No.4 of the metro, which was built for, and opened just days before, the Olympic Games.

Engineering posted 1bn euros in revenues last year with 12-15% coming from outside Italy. The largest chunk of international revenues came from Latin America, di Cesare said.