The United Kingdom (UK) bank "Barclays" is suspending the operations center in Lithuania - it is transferring about 460 jobs to the international programming and information technology company "HCL Technologies" (HCL), which has been operating in Vilnius since 2016.
The remaining 260 or so jobs will be cut with severance offers, Barclays and HCL said. About 80 more jobs are temporarily suspended, Barclays reported to BNS. The company currently employs about 800 employees.
According to Barclays, the changes in Lithuania were caused by the expanding strategic cooperation with HCL, which is becoming a worldwide partner of Barclays' information technology services. Barclays and HCL have also committed to a global partnership with an exclusive focus on digital workplace solutions.
According to Rahul Singh, Head of Financial Technology Service Centers at HCL Technologies, the partnership with Barclays is an important assessment of HCL's digital workplace creation and automation services.
"We have already employed more than 10 people in Europe. people, we serve over 200 customers here. Based on the aforementioned agreement, we will start providing services to Barclays and other large customers in Lithuania. Many well-known companies have already established their centers in Lithuania, so we see the country's potential due to the attractive investment climate and talented specialists," R. Singh said in a press release.
The agreement between HCL and Barclays is not yet final, pending notification from the regulatory authorities. The companies expect to close the transaction in the first quarter of 2019.
"Barclays intends to continue operating in the same building, Green Hall, until the end of 2019. HCL Technologies is currently consulting with the owners of this building regarding the possibility of taking over the lease of the premises," Marian Andrade Gonzalez, head of the Barclays operations center in Lithuania, told BNS.
According to him, under the deal, Barclays IT Services Center, GTIS (Global Technology Infrastructure Center) and IT mainframe employees providing services. Employees who are given the opportunity to transfer to HCL will be able to do so on the same or similar working terms and conditions as currently available at Barclays.
The Barclays center in Vilnius was established in 2009, it is part of the international Barclays financial services group, which provides personal, business and investment banking, wealth and investment management services in more than 40 countries. The center in Lithuania provides technological solutions and a wide range of IT and human resource management services to company branches around the world.
According to MA Gonzalez, "Barclays" was the first foreign company to establish its service center in Lithuania. According to him, this also encouraged the creation of other large foreign companies in the country.
"We strongly contributed to the growth of the IT and service center sector, including the transfer of more complex operations management to Lithuania. However, based on Barclays' long-term global strategy, (…) we are constantly reviewing our operations. One of the steps in the implementation of this strategy was the decision to optimize the center's operations in Lithuania by transferring part of the jobs to HCL, with which we have been closely cooperating for several years," MA Gonzalez said in a press release.
HCL operates in 43 countries, the company's consolidated revenue for 12 months, as of September 30 of this year, reached 8,2 billion. JAV dollars (7,2 billion euros). HCL provides services in financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, media, publishing, entertainment, commerce, healthcare and life sciences, oil and gas, energy and utilities, travel, transportation and logistics and government.
Recently, one of the world's largest insurance companies, American International Group (AIG), and the global producer of high-quality technical fibers from Finland, Ahlstrom, which had service centers here, have already left Lithuania.
Rise Vilnius, a workspace for business startups established by Barclays, also operates in Vilnius.