Despite no real change in the economics governing their industry, coinciding with the lean season, low fares on domestic sectors -- as promised by the airlines -- are suddenly back. The drop in fares, in many instances, is quite significant.
Those involved in Satyam have also been fudging carbon credits but they get away as there is no penalty. Ever
Maytas Properties and Maytas Infra are promoted by Raju's family and have interests in realty and construction. Noting that there is no problem with the Maytas accounts, Bhatt said all the exposure are collateralised and accounts are regular.
"It defies logic, one is not sure whether there is much more to it than is written in the letter and whether the letter contains all the facts," KPMG chief operating officer Richard Rekhy said on the sidelines of a CII function in New Delhi. It is too simplistic at the moment to believe that the kind of thing that has happened in the company is done by Raju alone, he said.
Scandal-hit Satyam Computer Services is likely to abandon its proposed IT park project in Gandhinagar in view of the multi-crore fraud in the Hyderabad-based software firm, Gujarat government officials said on Friday.
The official said that L&T did not jack up its stake in Satyam in recent times and the stake the group owns was acquired in phases from the secondary market. Speculations were rife that the engineering major might look at acquiring Satyam in order to strengthen its presence in the information and technology arena where it has presence through L&T Infotech, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group.
PwC's comments are still awaited. Following a letter from the Satyam chairman, who accepted that he had misrepresented facts in the company's balance sheet, role of auditors and accountants for the company has also come under scanner.
Satyam's last month's gaffe of transferring funds to promoter group companies by buying stakes in the latter already raised a stink. It led us to doubt the faith that investors had put on a company's management, its independent directors, auditors, consultants and rating agencies.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said on Wednesday he was not aware of the details of the Satyam Computer financial fraud, and would take appropriate action after studying the case. Reddy was in New Delhi for a meeting with Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
In what could bring some respite to Maytas Infra, which is caught in a controversy after Satyam aborted its bid to acquire it, the Andhra Pradesh government refused to see the Satyam issue as a factor that would impact the Rs 12,000-crore (Rs 120 billion) Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) project, which is being executed by a Maytas-led consortium.
The National Association of Software and Service companies has appointed S Ramadorai, chief executive officer, Tata Consultancy Services as the chairman of Nasscom for the year 2005-06.
Fourth largest software exporter from India, Satyam Computer Services on Thursday said it would expand its global footprint by opening more delivery centres and sales offices overseas.
The second charge sheet may highlight some more financial transaction made by Raju and some of his associates.
Leading IT services firm Satyam Computer Services will be allotted 50 acres of land in Chennai by the Tamil Nadu government for expanding its operations.
The company has a total of 34,000 employees globally.
The company aims to book a profit of over Rs 250 crore from the open market sale, said two sources familiar with the development.
"Now if there is somebody who knows about the confession (and) wants to buy (or sell) at price 'X', should we as a regulator be coming in the way?" C B Bhave, chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India, told PTI. His first reaction on receipt of Raju's e-mail was, however, that of disbelief.
The software company has conducted 'mass recruitment' of entry level engineers from top Malaysian universities.
Satyam Computer Services expects to grow its headcount substantially in China from the current 300 to a few thousand in the next few years, even as it scouts for acquisitions to enhance its skills in areas it does not have a foothold.
'It is revealed that an amount of Rs 1,425 crore out of Rs 1,744 crore loan obtained from NBFCs was transferred to the bank accounts of SCSL by 37 companies as loan over a period ranging from November 17, 2006 to October 30, 2008 to meet the expenses of the Satyam Computer Services Limited. Out of this amount, Rs 194 crore was returned by SCSL during October and November 2008 to 15 out of the 37 companies,' the CBI said in its chargesheet.
IL&FS Financial Services has acquired 14.5 per cent stake in Maytas Infra, promoted by former Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju's kin, through invocation of pledge and off-market transactions.
In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Maytas Infra said a meeting of the board of directors of the company will be held on Thursday to appoint Vaish and Jain as directors of the company in accordance with the order of the Company Law Board. Former ICAI president Ved Jain and noted tax lawyer O P Vaish were named as new board members of Maytas Infra following CLB directing the government to appoint four nominee directors, including a chairman, on the company's board.
Maytas Infra will now have to submit a Rs 240 crore bank guarantee and will get a 60 day breather by paying a penalty. "The global recession and the consequent credit squeeze in national and international capital markets has created a force majeure situation. Besides, the ongoing PIL (filed by an NGO) is having an extremely deleterious effect on our ability to achieve the financial closure," said the company.
The arguments were made by the government before the CLB, which is considering a petition by the government for removal of the board of Maytas Properties. The CLB is likely to pass the order later. The government also alleged that the valuation of Maytas Properties by the consultancy firm was done in a day.
Hyderabad-based Satyam Computers has set aside $1 billion (around Rs 4,100 crore) to buy companies which it finds attractive.
At a time when almost 90 per cent of my Satyam friends are cribbing about the fraud and betrayal by (former Satyam chairman) B Ramalinga Raju, I have a slightly different opinion.
Satyam may have been loaded with funds of over Rs 5,000 crore as on September 2008, but it could have been left with just Rs 200 crore of maturable fixed deposits by the time IT firm's founder Ramalinga Raju revealed financial fraud on January 7.
Shares of Maytas Infra hit its lower circuit just after opening, to halt trading at Rs 105, down 4.99 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange. A similar fate was faced on the National Stock Exchange, where the scrip touched an intra-day low of Rs 105.40, down five per cent. A total of 971 shares got traded on both the bourses.
That the value of brand Satyam would be eroded many times over, following its former chairman Ramalinga Raju's admission that he had cooked the company's books, was a given.
Corruption is an endemic part of the system, so why should Satyam be subject to higher ethical standards by auditors, bankers, etc. than some other company?
As of date, the company has 449 employees on its roll, a company spokesperson said, adding it would be difficult to say off-hand the number of non-critical employees removed from the service.
Asking the government not to use taxpayers money to bail out scam-struck Satyam, the CPI(M) on Friday demanded confiscation of about 17,500 acres of land, given to it and two Maytas companies by the Andhra Pradesh government, to pay for the salaries of its 53,000 employees.
The market capitalisation of Satyam fell to Rs 1,607.04 crore (Rs 16.07 billion) on Friday from Rs 15,262 crore (Rs 152.62 billion) at the end of trade on December 16, 2008, the day when Satyam announced an $1.6 billion acquisition deal of two firms promoted by the kin of IT firm's former chairman Ramalinga Raju. However, the company aborted the deal hours later after the investors dissent.
Though the decision to pull out of the Rs 8,603-crore (Rs 86.03 billion) multi-services SEZ project in Tamil Nadu has been taken by the MMTC brass, the formal approval for aborting the plan is expected on January 16 from the MMTC board.
Satyam Computer Services has formed a new team to look into its day-to-day affairs, following the resignation of its chairman Ramalinga Raju.
Warning the Indian IT industry against complacency, the head of Satyam Computer Services has said it needs to continuously innovate to keep ahead of other developing nations including China which are 'eyeing a piece of the pie.'
Satyam Computer Services Ltd on Wednesday announced approval of Sponsored American Depository Shares issue against the existing equity shares of the company.