Satyam Computer Services will announce its stake sale plan in a few days. “We expect we should be able to make an announcement in a few days,” Chairman Kiran Karnik said today. “We plan to invite bids in the next few days (and) have worked out the modalities for that, which now needs approval from the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi),” he added.
The Sebi Board is likely to give its clearance without many changes, given that Satyam was a "special case", a senior official working with the regulator said last week.
A few companies have already expressed their intent to invest in Satyam, prominent among them being Larsen & Toubro, the Hinduja group and the BK Modi-led Spice group.
Satyam's overseas clients were watching the developments in the company very keenly and wanted to know the identity of the strategic investor at the earliest, Karnik said.
"They (clients) are waiting to see who the new partner will be before taking any decision (on their continuing with the company)," Karnik said, adding "the foreign clients have expressed satisfaction about the progress of the company (so far)".
"The restatement of accounts may take a while. We may not be able to give audited accounts to bidders immediately. (But) we can give them an idea about some important parameters such as the order-book, current position of receiveables and clients," Karnik added. Satyam’s government-appointed board is going ahead with the sale plan before the fraud probe is complete or the company has restated its accounts in an effort to restore investor confidence in Satyam and stem client defections.
Sebi had last week amended takeover rules for companies where the government replaces the board to save them from collapse, paving the way for Satyam’s state- appointed board to sell a stake to a strategic investor.
Meanwhile, Fidelity Investments has raised it raise in Satyam by .27 per cent to 10.17 per cent through open market regulators.