Strategic investor for Satyam soon

2 Mar 2009,

HYDERABAD: Satyam Computers will get a strategic investor in the next few weeks, Union corporate affairs minister Prem Chand Gupta said here on Sunday.

Gupta, who laid the foundation stone of Corporate Bhavan at Thathiannaram village in Hayatnagar mandal in the neighbouring Ranga Reddy district, said the bidding process for finding a strategic investor for Satyam “in a transparent manner is the Company Law Board’s responsibility and in the next few weeks something concrete will take shape”.

However, the Union minister did not spell out a time-frame for completion of the bidding process and the companies that have come forward for expressing interest.

The government-nominated Satyam Board would have to submit norms for the bidding process to the CLB to seek its assent. Once the CLB clears the norms, the process of bidding can be rolled out. “The Board is working on a warfooting. It is expected to wrap up the process soon,” he added.

When asked whether foreign players would be allowed to bid for Satyam Computers, the Union minister said it was for the newly-appointed board to decide.

Prem Chand Gupta repeated his statement in Parliament that the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) is expected to complete the probe within 90 days. “It is not proper to divulge details of the SFIO investigation at this point of time, but it is confident that Satyam fraud investigation can be concluded within the given time,” the minister added. He said checking transactions and entries, which run into millions, needs a lot of time and effort while there was no move from the SFIO seeking any extension of the period of probe.