Raju family stake drops to 2.34 per cent as lenders sell more

Mumbai: Lenders, with whom all the Satyam promoter's equity has been pledged, have sold more stake in the company to recover their funds. As a result, the stake of promoters, Raju family, in the company has dropped to 2.34 per cent from 3.60 per cent. In a filing to the National Stock Exchange on Thursday, Satyam said that SRSR Holdings' stake in Satyam has come down to 2.34 per cent from 3.60 per cent due to the sale of shares pledged by the promoters to lenders for raising funds. The Satyam promoter had earlier pledged his shares to raise funds. Last week, lenders sold over 1.02 crore Satyam shares (1.53 pc), which were pledged by the promoters, in open market transactions. After the sale, SRSR Holdings had dipped to 3.60 per cent. In another filing last week, IL&FS Trust Company said it has sold over 2.45 crore shares, representing 3.64 per cent stake, of Satyam within a fortnight in open market transactions. The market value of this stake, which was held by IL&FS on behalf of various lenders, at the current market price of Rs 179.10 on the BSE works out to Rs 439 crore.

Raju’s letter is not the whole truth, says ICAI president

New Delhi: ICAI president Ved Jain today expressed doubts over the veracity of even the confessional letter written by Satyam Computer Services former Chairman B Ramalinga Raju. “I have not been able to understand as an accountant how this can be correct. This letter does not make out what he (Raju) is explaining. Rs 5,000 crore cannot be created over night, what his accountants were doing, there must be a chain of accountants,” Jain said. The letter written by Raju to the company’s board talked about inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore. “I believe this letter is not the whole truth, this is my perception there can be much more beyond this,” Jain said. “I am not ready to believe Raju's version that only he was involved. Many people would have been involved in the fraud. And if many people are involved, the fraud should have been detected, it is unfortunate that it was not detected,” Jain said.

Shock waves travel down under

Melbourne: The accounting fraud admitted to by the former Satyam chairman is likely to cast its shadow over the Australian companies’ plans to outsource IT jobs to India, according to a media report. Corporate Australia’s push to export IT jobs to India is in disarray following the fraud involving one of the key outsourcing companies,” Australian daily Herald Sun said. Telstra, Quantas, Coles National Australia Bank (NAB) and Suncorp are amongst the several Australian companies which has been affected by the Satyam scandal. According to the report, Satyam Australia employs about 1,700 local staff. Apart from Australian clients Satyam’s clientele include Citi Group and Nissan Motor Corp. The report states that NAB has outsourced nearly 500 positions to India after engaging Satyam and other providers over the past three years. Besides, Telstra also employs Satyam as one of its major IT contractors.The government is in talks with Satyam about saving jobs.

Rivals may pick off clients

NEW DELHI: The fraud at Satyam Computer Services may have put the Indian outsourcing firm's future in doubt, but could be a boost in troubled times for local and global rivals if they can lure away worried clients. Local rivals Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys Technologies are among those who could pick up defecting Satyam clients. Among foreign vendors, Accenture and Cognizant, which have large offshore centres and already serve Satyam clients such as Kimberly-Clark and Telstra, would also benefit, analysts said. Satyam, which specialises in business software and offers back-office outsourcing and consulting, counts General Electric, Nestle, Qantas and Fujitsu among its major customers.

No plans to suspend Satyam trading

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange today said there was no move to suspend trading of Satyam's shares as of now even though the company has been removed from Sensex and Nifty from January 12. “The issue (of suspending the trading shares of Satyam) has not been discussed so far. There is no such plans as of now,” the BSE spokesperson told PTI. NSE also said it did plan to suspend trading in Satyam shares.