Bangalore: Leading third party BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) player Daksh eServices Pvt Ltd plans to hire 900 people during the year to ramp up its total headcount to over 4,500, a top company official said on June 13.

The $ 30 million Daksh, which has among its customers Fortune 500 companies, plans to set up a call centre in the Asia Pacific region next year and has identified Malaysia, Philippines and Mauritius as potential locations.

"The overseas centre is due to a demand from our client who wants a redundancy unit out of India. It would be during 2004," Daksh co-founder and Sr Vice President (Strategic Initiatives) Pavan Vaish told reporters.

Though Daksh declined to name its clients citing costumer confidentiality, leading online book store Amazon.com, which outsources its e-mail based services has a stake in the firm.

Vaish said the ITES firm, whose 2/3rd of business is generated through voice-based transactions and the rest by technical support, plans an initial public offer in the "next 12 to 18 months".

Daksh has clients in e-commerce, banking financial services and insurance, high technology, telecom, healthcare services and travel industry.

The firm, set-up in January 2000, has raised $ 28 million in three rounds from CDC Capital, Citibank's private equity group and General Atlantic partners.

Vaish said Daksh had the equity in the firm was well distributed with employee stock options and no individual or firm had more than 25 per cent stake. PTI