Thursday, January 8, 2009

Satyam - More than what meets the eye!

The sordid saga at Satyam Computers begs a few questions to which we need answers to understand the complete puzzle in its entirety.
a) Raju has conveniently misled the public into believing that the last quarter profitability of just 3% of operating margin, is all that the company used to make over the last few years. Given the size and scale of Satyam's operations, it would not be unreasonable to assume that possibly, until a couple of quarters back, the company would have definitely been generating a 13-15% operating margin albeit on a reduced revenue base. Therefore to assume that all of the inflated 5040 cr of cash was all along never existent even partially, would be nothing but naïve thinking. Therefore, to put forth a hypothesis that cash that was generated in the past was actually siphoned out without adjusting the cash balances downwards, is by no means stretching one's imagination too far. Obviously, one would need a detailed inspection of the company's books over the last few years to ascertain the same.
b) The interim CEO, while one would like to believe, has the best interests of 'stakeholders' in mind, still seems to be getting his instructions from Raju. What else can a reasonable mind conclude if the recommendations made by Raju in his farewell letter are enforced to the T, in a matter of couple of hours, without any change whatsoever? So quite obviously, his writ still seems to run the company. Why else would the Satyam management, even after 36 hours, not file a police complaint against Raju and his brother? Where else would you find the president of a global company who directly manages more than 50% of its revenues, be unable to smell a rat when the difference in the reported operating margins vis-à-vis actual is over 700%, the difference between reported revenues vis-à-vis actual is over 25%? It also appears that the current interim CEO was the key executive responsible for the now infamous World Bank engagement. Maybe he is referring to Raju when he referring to the stakeholders!
c) One would also like to understand as to how a clutch of five bankers decided to lend close to$ 50 mn to the company when they believed that the company had a cash pile of over a billion dollars. So what was the money lent for, against what security and what was their understanding of which bank was holding what amount of cash across fixed deposits or current accounts? If this is the way bankers go about exercising diligence and providing credit to borrowers, then surely our financial system has still not learnt its lessons.
d) If Raju, as he claims, had pledged his shares and arranged 1200 crs for the company, who was servicing these loans, and if it is the company, then how was this being accounted for?
e) Since one of the ultimate beneficiaries of the siphoned out funds could have been Maytas properties, there is an urgent need for one to undertake a due diligence of all Maytas' assets and its true sources of funding-both equity and debt.

All in all, while Raju is trying to paint a picture of a do-gooder who slipped just once and therefore had no option but to slip again and again, all in the interest of the company, it is quite obvious that he has robbed the average shareholder on the street to unjustly enrich himself and his family. While one hopes that the guilty are brought to book, there is this lurking fear that what we have seen is just the tip of the iceberg. The fact that the Hyderabad police has still not issued an arrest warrant for Raju confirms the vexatious link between business and politics in our country. Ladies and gentlemen, the show is not over, it has just begun.

3 comments:

  1. First of all, welcome to blogging. Or Blogosphere as it's pompously called.
    I agree with what you say. They are very pertinent questions. Raju is now (amazingly) taking a sort of moral highground, under the guise of doing all this for the good of the company.
    In my opinion, limited liability should be waived for cases of crime or fraud. Why should Raju enjoy his wealth (after a few comfortable years in jail) after he has defrauded his investors?

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  2. As in all SATYAM SHIVAm sundaram sagas we would like to get to the bottom of this & know the naked truth. Good note Shiva dig deeper. talking of "Highground" maybe we should have a brainstorming session at Ramesh's terrace office to get a macro view on all this.
    It will also be interesting to hear Shiva's prediction on where Satyam will be in 30days time?

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  3. Now that he government has stepped in, they will play the role of a caretaker till such time they get suitors.Satyam the entity will be of no interest to any one given the still unquantified laibility that they would have - especially a class action suit and dont forget a USD 1 billion claim from their former customer Upaid. But Satyam's contracts and people would be valuable . I see one or more companies taking over such parts of the business. Consequently Satyam the company will get some monies with which they decide how they atleast partially extinguish some of their liabilities.

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