IRISH ONLINE recruiter Saongroup.com has expanded its operations to central America with the acquisition of Tecoloco.com. The deal will be announced today.

The Irish recruiter, which is jointly owned by telecoms entrepreneur Denis O'Brien and Cork businessman Leslie Buckley, is believed to have paid more than $3 million (€2.05 million) to acquire the business although no price was disclosed.

Tecoloco has operations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama and plans to open in Costa Rica before Christmas. The company numbers computer maker Dell, consumer goods group Unilever and financial services giant HSBC among its clients.

Tecoloco is targeting turnover for 2008 of $1.5 million, compared with $950,000 last year.

Its website, which operates in English and Spanish, gets about 200,000 visits a month, making it the busiest recruitment website in central America. This number is growing by about 25 per cent a year.

Mr Buckley, who is Saongroup's chairman, said Tecoloco would complement its existing operations in the Caribbean.

"It makes sense for us to expand into Spanish-speaking parts of central America," he told The Irish Times. "There are a fair amount of synergies that we can get from the two businesses."

Tecoloco was founded in 2001 by Carla De Vanegas, its chief executive, and Irene Bustamante, a director with the business.

Saongroup, which operates here as Irishjobs.ie, has acquired the entire business but both women will continue to run the company.

Internet penetration is low in central America, ranging from 8 per cent in El Salvador to about 10 per cent in the other markets in which Tecoloco operates. "There's a great growth opportunity for us in the region," Mr Buckley said.

Saongroup has been expanding its business worldwide over the past three years and now operates in 10 counties.

On Thursday, the Irish recruiter will extend its operation in India by launching a jobs website in Hyderabad, a city with a population of about seven million. It already operates an online recruitment business in Pune, in western India.

Saongroup recorded turnover of €28 million in 2007 and Mr Buckley said it was on target to increase its revenues by about 50 per cent this year in spite of the economic slowdown. "We will have higher revenue this year in every market that we are in."