SEC officials to visit SEBI, Satyam headquarters

Hinduja Group sounds Goldman Sachs on acquisition.


Mumbai, Feb. 1 Officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the US are scheduled to visit India this week to gather information about the Satyam financial scandal. On their agenda, is a visit to SEBI, their counterpart in India; and to Hyderabad, the headquarters of Satyam Computer Services.

They will meet with the newly-constituted board of the company, said sources.

Over a dozen class action suits have been filed by US shareholders of Satyam at various courts in that country, following Mr Ramalinga Raju’s confession of a scam in his company. Satyam’s ADRs are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

SEBI itself has constituted an investigating authority to determine whether any of its regulations or acts has been violated in the scam. The Indian securities regulator, however, has not been able to interrogate Mr Raju. Its appeal to access him was denied by a Hyderabad court on technical grounds. SEBI has been able to meet with some officials of the company and is also understood to have visited the office of Price Waterhouse, external auditors to Satyam.

Although enquiries into possible insider trading in Satyam Computers can be pursued by studying stock exchange records, SEBI would need to interrogate Mr Raju for following other aspects of the scam, said sources.

Shamik Paul reports from Bangalore:The takeover race for the beleaguered Satyam seems to have further intensified with Hinduja Group being the latest entrant.

A source said Hinduja Global Solutions, formerly know as HTMT Global Solutions, is interested to acquire the Hyderabad-based Satyam, and has communicated its interest to the investment bankers of Satyam. The new board at Satyam has appointed Goldman Sacha and Avendus as its investment bankers.

This acquisition could provide the business process outsourcing company the opportunity to re-enter the IT Services space. HTMT Global had commenced its operations as Ashok Leyland Information Technology, an IT consulting firm with solutions centered on the mainframe platform. In 2000 HTMT Global started operations as a BPO company.

The source declined to divulge further information. It has been said that Hinduja Global has $130 million of cash in books. The company has more than 13,000 employees and over 60 clients.

For the latest quarter it reported revenue of Rs 218.60 crore, a 31.9 per cent increase over the year-ago period.

Other companies interested in buying Satyam include the Spice Group headed by Mr BK Modi, which is interested in acquiring 51 per cent stake in the company.

Larsen and Toubro has recently increased its stake in Satyam to 12 per cent from 4 per cent. The other potential buyers include iGate and Tech Mahindra.