Andhra bids YSR a tearful adieu

Lakhs of people on Friday bid a tearful farewell to charismatic Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, who was killed in a helicopter crash, as his body was interred in his family’s expansive estate here after a state funeral.

The last rites were performed in this rural town in Pulivendla constituency after a galaxy of national leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and leader of the Opposition LK Advani joined a sea of humanity that had all parts of the state to bid adieu to him in Hyderabad.

60-year-old Reddy’s son Jaganmohan (36), the cynosure of all eyes against the backdrop of a succession race for the Chief Minister’s post, was composed with hands folded acknowledging the mourners, many of whom raised slogans like.

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Larsen and Toubro, Mahindra, Spice in race for Satyam

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Tech Mahindra and the Spice group on Thursday submitted expressions of interest (EoI) to participate in the bidding process to acquire a 51% stake in Satyam Computer Services. Another major contender, the Hinduja group, backed out from the bidding process for reasons it did not disclose. Capgemini, Europe’s largest computer consultancy, also said it has no interest in buying a stake in the troubled IT company. The deadline for submitting an EoI ended at 5 pm on Thursday.

Satyam’s government-appointed board is keen to bring in a majority investor to restore the confidence in the company of its 50,000-strong staff and more than 600 customers, which include General Electric and Qantas Airways. Though the company was hit by India’s biggest corporate scandal, its top clientele and staff talent are seen as attractive to potential bidders. However, the class action suits in the US still hang like a Damocles’ sword over the company, with estimated liabilities of $400 to $800 million, according to Spice group legal advisors.

The Satyam board is meeting on Friday in Hyderabad to scrutinise the EoIs.

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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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Ghost workers at Satyam

Just how many people does Satyam Computer Services employ? In June 2008,Satyam reported it had 51,643 employees on the rolls.The company’s website and government statements after founder & former chairman B Ramalinga Raju’s confessions put the number at 53,000. Minister of corporate affairs Premchand Gupta said last Friday that the only way to determine the actual staff strength was through the provident fund office.

According to the public prosecutor arguing the matter in a Hyderabad metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday, the number of employees is 40,000. FE learns that the last time Satyam filed its monthly returns to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), for the month of November 2008, the number of employees stood at 43,622.

For December,EPFO is yet to receive the PF contribution returns from the company, although the law mandates that contributions be deposited by the 15th of the following month.

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Satyam gets buyout offers

A Satyam Computer Services sell-off could follow the way of erstwhile Unit Trust of India. This would mean bifurcating the company: one part with the troubled assets taking upon itself the lawsuits, which would be handled with government help, while the functional business part would be sold off. But a decision on any such plan would have to be taken by the new board, which will be meeting in Hyderabad on Thursday and Friday.

The possibility of a buyout was confirmed on Tuesday by Tarun Das,one of the six-member board headed by Deepak Parekh. He told reporters that some domestic and foreign companies had expressed interest in taking over the IT company. “The board has not yet discussed the issue of looking for a buyer. But I have to truthfully say, we have been approached by potential buyers,” said Das, chief mentor of CII, at The Partnership Summit 2009 in New Delhi. He said offers had come from multinational entities and Indian IT companies.

While Das did not name the interested companies, L&T chief AM Naik met corporate affairs minister Prem Chand Gupta along with key ministry officials and discussed options related to L&T’s ‘strategic’ investment in Satyam.

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