Individual shareholders continued to buy shares of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services in the fourth quarter of 2008-09 even as foreign institutional investors (FIIs), mutual funds and insurance companies pruned their ownerships in the Hyderabad-based company.
Satyam's founder Ramalinga Raju had admitted to an accounting fraud to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore on January 7, 2009.
The share of investors, owning less than Rs 1,00,000 in Satyam stocks, surged to 35.04 per cent in the three months ended March 31, 2009 from 12.39 per cent in the quarter ended December 31, 2008, according to a shareholding pattern released by the company to the stock exchanges.
The total shareholding of individual shareholders, including those owning more than Rs 1,00,000 shares of the company, jumped to 37.47 per cent in the reported period from 12.99 per cent in the preceding quarter, the break-up showed.
Tech Mahindra was announced the new owner of Satyam earlier this month, after it offered the highest bid for a majority stake in the company.
FIIs reduced their stake to 15.67 per cent in the March quarter from 44.82 per cent in December. Apart from FIIs, investors based outside the country also dumped the software maker's shares. Shares held by custodians and against which Depository Receipts have been issued declined to 13.04 per cent from 19.39 per cent in the period.
Aberdeen Asset Managers, Swiss Finance Corporation and Lazard Asset Management, which owned more than 2 per cent stake each in the company, reduced their stake to below 1 per cent, the shareholding pattern revealed.
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Larsen and Toubro, which was one of the contenders for acquiring the firm, along with L&T Capital, have increased their stake to 12.04 per cent between January and March 2009.
The construction and engineering company did not own any shares of Satyam in the December quarter.
The total holding of the insurance companies also declined from 9.34 per cent to 4.81 per cent, while shares of mutual funds dropped from 6.22 per cent to a mere 0.67 per cent in the quarter.