Satyam unveils results

Barely days before Tech Mahindra’s open offer for an additional 20% stake, Satyam Computer Services made public the unaudited financial details that it had shared with bidders earlier. In a filing with exchanges, Satyam said soon after founder B Ramalinga Raju confessed to perpetrating a Rs 7,000-crore fraud in early January, the company lost about $183 million in contracts from 56 clients up to March 26.

However, Satyam says it received new business orders from 215 mostly existing customers with contract values totalling $380 million during the same period. The company had a bank balance of Rs 373 crore at the end of March 2009, but outstanding bank loans worth Rs 469 crore.

In the quarter ended December 31, 2008, the company had a PAT of Rs 181 crore on revenues of Rs 2,206 crore. Figures for the same period the previous year were not available for comparison. In January, Satyam had a PAT of Rs 4 crore on revenues of Rs 647 crore, and for February, it had a PAT of Rs 52 crore on revenues of Rs 637 crore.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Value from family differences

It was a terse note on June 18, 2005 from Kokilaben D Ambani that many thought would put an end to a public spat between her two sons-Mukesh and Anil Ambani-over ownership of the Reliance empire. Three years later, the spat continues, the latest over Anil's plans for a stake sale in his flagship Reliance Communications (RComm) to South Africa's MTN. This time, no one's stepping in, not even the matriarch. Paradoxically, after the split, both sides of the Reliance empire have grown manifold in value under the two brothers. Is that why no one's complaining?

In her 2005 statement, Kokilaben Ambani said, "With the blessings of Srinathji, I have today amicably resolved the issues between my two sons keeping in mind the proud legacy of my husband. I am confident that Mukesh and Anil will uphold the values of their father and work towards protecting and enhancing value of over 3 million shareholders of the Reliance group."

Mukesh, who got Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and the erstwhile Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd, and Anil, who took control of what was then Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital, did indeed protect and enhance shareholders' interest. They added new businesses and pumped in much investment and vigour into existing ones.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com

Personal Computer to Phone Calls in Offing

Removing the last barriers in seamless connectivity, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will soon allow connectivity between PC and fixed and mobile phones. This would mean that telephone calls could be made from a personal computer to a fixed phone or a mobile phone. These are currently not allowed.

The move would bring about a steep fall in STD rates and redefine the national long distance(NLD)regime.

Sources said Trai would release a consultation paper on the issue on May 12. Currently,voice over Internet protocol(Internet telephony) is permitted by licensed Internet service providers (ISPs), but such calls can only be made from PC-to-PC. For terminating such calls to phones, a special device has to be attached.

There's a big market for PC-to-phone calls, as can be gauged by the traffic in the international long distance sector, where it's allowed, the usage is about 300 million minutes in a quarter.

To read the full article, click here...
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.financialexpress.com