Satyam to mull on buyout offers, decision soon

According to a company source, the two-day board meeting, beginning on Wednesday, will consider six-seven buyout offers made to it and discuss the company's short-term funding requirements.

Ever since Satyam's founder and former chairman Ramalinga Raju admitted to having cooked the account books of the company to the tune of at least $1.5 billion, the company has been under severe liquidity crunch and, in its search of raising working capital, the newly-appointed six member board said the company is not averse to a takeover provided it finds a good suitor.

Though Satyam has received proposals from both domestic and foreign players, the board may give preference to a local entity.

In this regard, Satyam has appointed Goldman Sachs and Avendus, an Indian investment bank, to identify strategic investors and obtain expressions of interest.

Leading the buyout race are India's largest engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T), B.K. Modi's diversified Spice Group, IT services provider iGate Corporation, the UK-based Hinduja Group and Tech Mahindra, a leading IT services and solutions provider to the telecom industry and a unit of $6.7 billion Mahindra Group. Of the four, frontrunners are L&T, which is Satyam's biggest shareholder with 12 percent stake, and the Spice Group, which has made an offer of $408 million to buy controlling interest in the company.