Satyam door opened to foreign bids: IBM, Oracle make queries

The government is keen to get a foreign suitor for Satyam. Minister for corporate affairs Prem Chand Gupta said in Hyderabad on Sunday the company’s government-appointed board has formally asked foreign companies to also bid.

While the minister did not disclose names, it is learnt that officials from IBM have met Satyam’s management team this month, to ascertain how long the restatement of accounts would take for the Indian firm. Oracle is also learnt to have sent some questionnaires to the Hyderabad-based IT company that imploded after its erstwhile chairman B Ramalinga Raju said he had engineered a Rs 7,800-crore accounting fraud in the firm.

The minister’s statement means the government is keen to get a very strong valuation for Satyam than was thought so far, with domestic engineering company L&T seen as the front runner. It already has a 12% stake in the IT company.

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Sebi mulls open offer relaxation for Satyam buy

Markets regulator Sebi on Monday said it was considering a waiver of regulations that guide how shares should be priced in an acquisition in the case of Satyam Computer Services. Chairman CB Bhave told reporters after a Sebi board meeting that he had received a letter from the newly constituted Satyam board to exempt it from certain provisions of the Sebi (Substantial Acquisition of Shares & Take overs) Regulations,1997.

Bhave said the January 7 acknowledgement of a Rs 7,800-crore accounting fraud by erstwhile Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju had created an unusual situation in the pricing of the scrip. Hence, there was a genuine need to look into this matter, said Bhave. “We will not take this on a case-to-case basis, but will look at it generally and will make changes in the amendments so that such abnormal cases are handled through a transparent mechanism,”he said.

The mechanism of arriving at the price will be looked into later, Bhave added. Sources in Sebi said they expect this would be concluded by the end of the week.

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Permanent Satyam employees number stands at 43,622: Provident Fund Organisation

The Provident Fund Organisation(PFO), Hyderabad, has put the official count of Satyam Computer Services permanent employees at 43,622. Officials of the regional office in Hyderabad lodged a complaint with the CID on Thursday against B Ramalinga Raju, the founder and former chairman of beleaguered outsourcing giant Satyam Computer, and former chief financial officer V Srinivas for not depositing Rs 7.5 crore, the employees’ share of the PF collected by Satyam for December 2008.

For the record, the government-appointed board of directors for Satyam had earlier asserted that the number of Satyam employees tallies with the 52,000 figure as was claimed by the Ramalinga Raju-led management. The Hyderabad PFO’s figure is in line with the public prosecutor’s argument in court that Satyam had close to 40,000 employees on its rolls.

According to sources in the PF department, the office would be filing a case against Raju and Srinivas for breach of trust as the company has already deducted the employees’ share of the PF, but failed to deposit it with the PF office.

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Satyam poised for management change, Rajus’ stake goes down

Satyam Computer Services is no won the block with promoters confirming to BSE that there has been a dilution of their 8.6% stake in the company and three more independent directors quitting its board. The company has appointed DSP Merrill Lynch to present an action plan for“ for increasing shareholders’ value” at the rescheduled board meeting on January 10.

The possible change in management was welcomed by the market, with the company’s shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange closing up 9.41% at Rs 148.25.

In its filing to BSE, Satyam said, “the company has received a communication from the promoters that all their shares in the company held by SRSR Holding Pvt Ltd were pledged with institutional lenders over a period of time since September 2006.

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