Cognizant UK echoes 10% growth target

(By Anthony Miller). I have just spoken to Cognizant UK MD, Sanjiv Gossain, and he sounds very comfortable with the company’s 10% growth guidance (see Cognizant signals 10% growth in 2009). Although like other players, Gossain is seeing slower decision-making, he said other customers are being spurred into action to try to save costs. We think Cognizant is winning share both from traditional players in the UK market as well as Indian peers; indeed I suspect they have some UK customers shared with Satyam who I would imagine are thinking hard about where to put their next piece of work. Nonetheless, 10% growth in a shrinking market is a pretty bold call at this point in the year, and I am sure Gossain is giving his backlog and pipeline a really good scrub on a very regular basis. Mind you, if any player is going to grow 10% this year, Cognizant would be at the top of my list! Just for the record, we estimate that Cognizant's UK revenues finished the year somewhere between £200-250m.