Our job now is to find a home for Satyam, says Karnik.
Mr Kiran Karnik, Chairman of Satyam Computer Services, addressing the press in Mumbai on Thursday.
Mumbai/ New Delhi, Feb. 12 The cash-strapped Satyam Computer Services board may pledge its land holding to raise funds. The company is reported to be holding lands worth Rs 1,500-1,700 crore in Hyderabad.
“For a bank loan you may have to do so,” said the Satyam Chairman, Mr Kiran Karnik, who came out in the midst of the board meeting held in the headquarters of HDFC on Thursday, to brief reporters.
Sale process in 10 days
Asked if the company was looking forward to more funding, apart from the Rs 600 crore being extended by Bank of Baroda and IDBI Bank, he said the position was comfortable as of now. Employee salaries for February would be paid on time and the January salaries, including some vendor payments had been disbursed from receivables.
“We have put out the fire and are now looking at financial stability,” he said, while expressing confidence that the process for sale of the scam-hit company would be defined in next 7-10 days.
“We are discussing with a number of experts — lawyers, bankers and everybody in the game. Our job is to find an appropriate home for the company, which would nurture it so that it grows well. We have ensured financial stability – which is the first step, a very necessary step, but not a sufficient step. Now, what we need to do is to stabilise the company on an on-going basis.”
He conceded that he was aware recasting of accounts would take a long time and the board could not hold up the sale process on this count. The Satyam board was in talks with the market regulator SEBI on various issues, including the open offer. The CEO of the company, Mr A.S. Murty, was part of all discussions of the board, a large part of which was to do with customer retention and employee satisfaction.
Asked whether the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections would hamper the process, he said: “I do not think the model code of conduct will have an impact. And, any new government that takes over is also a democratically elected one.”
It is learnt that investment bankers Goldman Sachs and Avendus had made a presentation to the board.
Crisis over: Minister
While stating that the crisis situation of Satyam was over, the Minister for Corporate Affairs, Mr Prem Chand Gupta, said that a process is being worked out for bringing in a strategic investor for the company.
He disclosed this at a Managing Committee Meeting of Assocham here on Thursday. “Situation of crisis is over. The board (Government appointed) has total command now. The next step is to find a suitable strategic investor who can take over operations of Satyam,” he said.
The Minister, without specifying any particular time frame for selecting the strategic investor, said that the selection would be done in the highest possible transparent and fair manner to satisfy the requirement of post-Satyam corporate crisis.
On a query raised by the Assocham President, Mr Sajjan Jindal, on the issue of independent directors after Satyam episode, Mr Gupta said that the new Company Bill adequately makes independent directors equally responsible proportionate to roles assigned to them at the time of their appointment by the company concerned.
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