HiSoft Technology International Ltd plans to float on the NASDAQ as early as the end of the year, becoming the first Chinese software exporter listed on the exchange.

"We are preparing for the share offering and expect to complete the listing in the fourth quarter or before next March," said Loh Tiak Koon, hiSoft's CEO, in an interview with China Daily. Loh declined to reveal how much the company is going to raise through the share offering.

HiSoft now has more than 2,300 engineers in China, Japan and the United States. The company provides services such as consulting, application testing and development for clients including Microsoft Corp and Symantec Corp.

Hisoft is looking to increase its headcount to 5,000 by the end of 2008, according to Loh, as part of the company's efforts to tap the US market.

Before 2003, over 80 percent of the Beijing-based company's business came from Japan. It is now gearing up for expansions in the US, which accounts for a major part of the world's demand for outsourcing services.

Industry insiders say US and Western European markets made up 75 percent of the world's $30 billion IT outsourcing market in 2006. Global spending on outsourcing services is estimated to maintain an annual growth of 16 percent over the next five years.

In March, hiSoft acquired Envisage Solutions, a California-based computer service provider, to help strengthen its presence in the US. Established in 2000, Envisage Solutions has worked with Fortune 1,000 companies such as Novell and General Electric in the automotive, telecom, hi-tech, pharmaceutical and financial sectors.

"The integration of the two companies has progressed very well, and we have already engaged some new customers such as Google in the US," Loh said. "Envisage will be able to have revenue growth of 40 percent this year, compared with 15 percent for 2006."

Hisoft is one of the Chinese companies trying to become a global outsourcing service provider. In recent years, multinational companies have been eyeing China as a new destination for low-cost IT services, facing rising labor costs and employee turnover rates in India. Industry insiders say China is now the second-most preferred offshore outsourcing destination after India.

HiSoft, established in 1993, received US$30 million in its second-round investment from US venture capital firms including Granite Global Ventures, Intel Capital and ePlanet Ventures. Silicon Valley-based heavyweight venture firms Sequoia Capital and DCM also paid $30 million to invest in Beijing-based IT outsourcing company Worksoft Creative Software Technology.

(China Daily June 14, 2007)