French aerospace firm eyes expansion

French aerospace company, Altran Technologies, on Thursday announced plans to expand its India operations by adding about 2,000 employees.

Michel Bailly, chief technical officer of Altran, said: “At present, we are conducting discussions with several key players and we expect to announce these acquisitions as we complete the due diligence process. We believe that these acquisitions will strengthen our existing capabilities”. He said the firm is looking at both organic and inorganic routes to scale up operations to reach a workforce of 2,000 high technology experts over the next two years in India. He added that the company eyes aerospace and defence for growth. Altran’s top global accounts are already engaged with India—and they include Airbus, Alstom Transportation and Renault.

The company already has three offices —in Chennai, Noida and their head office in Bangalore. It also plans to open a centre for excellence in Bangalore.

Sanjay Kumar, CEO (India), said that the company currently has around 400 employees and was looking to hire in mechanical engineering, embedded and critical systems space. He also said that the company has held talks with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for weight reduction of a few military aircrafts manufactured by the PSU.