Goldman Sachs to invest Rs 1,200 crore in Bangalore

Bengaluru: Goldman Sachs will invest $200 million (Rs 1,200 crore) to build a new campus in Bangalore that can accommodate 9,000 people.

The global investment bank's Bangalore operations, with 5,400 people, is already the largest outside its New York headquarters, where it has 12,000 employees. The Bangalore office, established 10 years ago, has seen its headcount rise at a compounded annual growth rate of about 19% over the past five years.

Jeffrey Schroeder, chief administrative officer and member of the management committee of Goldman Sachs, who was in Bangalore for the ground breaking for the new campus, said the Bangalore growth was a reflection of the quality of people here, and the quality of the work they do. "Bangalore has exceeded our highest expectations," he said.

Many of the world's biggest financial institutions have major technology, back office and customer support operations in India. These include Citibank, HSBC, Fidelity, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered.

Bunty Bohra, CEO of Goldman Sachs Services in India, said every function and department of the company was represented in the Bangalore operations. This includes technology, finance, investment banking, securities, operations, research, and analytics.

Those in technology constitute the biggest component, and is a reflection of the desire among financial institutions to develop proprietary technologies that can most efficiently serve their customers and differentiate them from competition. It also plays to Bangalore's biggest strength.

Schroeder declined to speculate on how rapidly the headcount will grow in future, but indicated that it would depend partly on the company growth. Bohra said the matter of retaining its existing leased facilities in Bangalore was still under discussion.

The new campus is being developed in collaboration with Kalyani Developers on the Sarjapur Outer Ring Road. Bohra said it would be designed to the highest standards laid out by the company globally and would be fully ready by 2018.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.