Detail The Satyam Scandal: Salvaging the Truth   Oleh:  The Economist Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine Dalam koleksi: The Economist (http://search.proquest.com/) vol. 391 no. 8627 (Apr. 2009), page 70. Topik: Satyam Scandal; Industries; Cash Balance Ketersediaan Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE29.54 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada     Lihat Detail Induk Isi artikel GETTING paid in pounds is not what it was. Almost 70% of the revenues booked by Tech Mahindra, an Indian technology company, are in sterling. This is largely because BT, a British telecoms operator which owns a 31% stake in the firm, also accounts for 57% of its custom. This has left Vineet Nayyar, Tech Mahindra’s chief executive, bemoaning the “precipitous decline” in the pound. But on April 13th Tech Mahindra made a dramatic move into fresh industries, new countries and harder currencies. It did so by winning an auction to buy Satyam, a disgraced software-and-services company. Satyam, which means “truth” in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, once belonged to the highest ranks of India’s most celebrated industry. But it now stands as the country’s biggest corporate fraud. On January 7th its founder and chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, confessed to falsifying the company’s accounts for years, inflating revenues and fabricating cash balances of about $1 billion that did not exist. Tech Mahindra outbid two rival suitors, including the favourite, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), an Indian engineering giant which already held a 12% stake in its target. Having previously overpaid for some of Satyam’s shares (it bought 4% of the company before Mr Raju’s confession), L&T was reluctant to bid more than 49.50 rupees ($0.99) per share in the opening round. It assumed it would get a chance to raise its bid, as the auction rules allowed, as long as its first offer was within 10% of the highest bid. But Tech Mahindra opened with a price of 58 rupees, depriving L&T of any opportunity to make a counter-offer. Tech Mahindra’s bid values Satyam at 56.65 billion rupees. This is less than a third of its stockmarket value before Mr Raju’s confession, but is it more than the firm is worth? It will be months before KPMG and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu finish picking through Satyam’s books, separating fact from fiction. The company has lost about 5,000 of its 53,000 employees in the past two quarters, according to one of the six directors appointed by the government to salvage the company. In March the Economic Times, an Indian newspaper, reported that Satyam had also forfeited 46 customers, including Nissan and Sony. The United Nations Secretariat has cancelled its contract, as has State Farm Insurance, a longstanding customer. But it could have been worse. In the midst of a global recession, most clients have other things on their minds. Few want to devote scarce time and energy to switching suppliers with all the rejigging of computer systems that entails. Tech Mahindra reckons Satyam’s annual revenues will amount to about $1.3 billion, and believes it can increase Satyam’s operating margins, which are thinner than its own. Satyam still carries some legal baggage. Holders of its American Depository Receipts have filed a class-action suit in America. Upaid, a British mobile-payments firm, is seeking damages in an intellectual-property dispute that predates Mr Raju’s confession. Even members of Mr Raju’s own family claim Satyam owes them money. At one point all this was enough to deter Tech Mahindra. “It is mired in a huge amount of litigation and it is not something we are pursuing,” Mr Nayyar told analysts on January 23rd. What changed his mind? Tech Mahindra belongs to the Mahindra group, a sprawling conglomerate that sells everything from sport-utility vehicles and tractors to housing loans and baby clothes. But its technology division has always been a hedgehog, not a fox: it knows a lot about one thing. An analyst describes it as a paralysed organisation, overly dependent on one industry (telecoms) and one client (BT). If Satyam can liberate its new buyer from this niche, even as Tech Mahindra frees Satyam from its stigma, it will be a happy result for both companies. It would also be a relief for the industry. The board appointed by the government did a commendable job of shepherding Satyam through a potentially fatal period. Indeed, the Satyam episode arguably demonstrates the worst and the best of Indian management. Mr Raju’s pride jeopardised the careers of tens of thousands of bright, dedicated professionals. The six members of the government-appointed board, by contrast, carried out their duty, despite the upheaval in their personal lives and the risk to their reputations. As for Mr Raju, he awaits trial in Chanchalguda Central Prison in Andhra Pradesh, his home state. It is still not clear whether his confession was as full and frank as he claimed. On April 20th India’s Central Bureau of Investigation will seek the court’s permission to subject Mr Raju to a lie-detector test, which will include mapping his brain. That may be the only place where a true and fair view of Satyam’s accounts can be found. Opini Anda Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini! Kembali

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