GK Management plans to set up facility in Madurai

Coimbatore-based G K Management Services (India) Limited (GKMSL), a business process outsourcing (BPO) company, is planning to set up a facility in Madurai by the end of the current financial year.

"We plan to establish our operations in the Tier II cities taking into consideration the cost effectiveness and the huge untapped potential available in these cities," G Karthikeyan, managing director of the company, told Business Standard.

However, he felt it was too early to comment on the probable investment that would be required for setting up the facility.

GKMSL offers a gamut of services in the accounting and tax outsourcing space, including payroll processing, insurance claim processing, audit, accounts and Taxation, Legal and Tax Compliances.

The company, which already has a subsidiary in the United States of America, is also planning to open branches in UK and Australia for its front-end operations. These projects are likely to materialise by the end of 2007.

The company has witnessed good growth in the tax preparation and financial accounting in the last year, not only in the US market but also in UK and Australia. The scope for back office support, especially in the areas of tax preparation, accounting and claim processing is highly increasing in these markets.

"We see a potential marketplace for accounting-related works and insurance claim processing. We are planning to have our presence in these nations," Karthikeyan added.

To fund its expansion projects, the company has offloaded 25 per cent of its stake to the Mumbai - based SHCIL Services Limited, an associate company of Stock Holding Corporation, for an undisclosed amount. The company is also toying with the idea of tapping the capital market by 2007.

GKM, in the year 2003, entered into a strategic relationship with RIA Thomson, a $ 7.8 billion US company, for tax preparation services of the US based clients.

Also, it has a referral alliance with the Maryland-based Group 1 Software for providing tax jurisdiction assignment solution to its customers, which include some leading commercial entities in North America.

Company sources said that the tax outsourcing service touched a high of two lakh returns last year, which was around five times higher compared to the earlier year. During the current year, the tax outsourcing service providers are expecting manifold increase in the numbers.

At present, GKMSL employs about 200 people and plans to increase the headcount to 1000 by 2010, according to Karthikeyan.

Besides ramping up its operations, increasing its employee strength and establishing an overseas presence, the company was also looking forward to provide its services in the legal process outsourcing (LPO) segment soon, he added.