Buyer for Satyam likely by month-end

As Minister for Corporate Affairs P C Gupta said today in Parliament that investigations in the Rs 7,800-crore Satyam fraud, allegedly by its chairman Ramalinga Raju have been handed over to the CBI, one of the members of the newly constituted board of the company said that a buyer for it may emerge by the month-end.

The board, which has been constituted by the government, has been looking for a buyer for the company which has been facing a financial crunch.

Senior member of the Satyam board, Deepak Parekh said here that a buyer was likely to emerge by the end of February when asked specifically whether he saw any buyer coming forward for the company. "Yes. By the end of this month," he said.

Satyam has already accelerated its plans to find a suitable buyer after India's market regulator amended takeover rules.

As part of the efforts to present the interested party with a suitable company, the software exporter has also got plans to downsize its work force, especially at the senior level.

Already two officials at senior level have quit and more resignations are expected to follow. Satyam, India's fourth-largest outsourcer, has been in news and facing the financial crunch since January 7 last when its founder Ramalinga Raju quit as chairman, revealing profits have been falsified for years and almost Rs 7,800 crore had been embezzled.

Later, the government dissolved Satyam's board and appointed six directors to save the company and its over 50,000 employees. The new board has appointed Goldman Sachs and Avendus, an Indian investment bank, to help find potential investors.

Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/