Satyam investors lose Rs 4,600 crore

Saytam Computer’s dubious $1.6-billion takeover plan of two sister companies — Maytas Properties and Maytas Infrastructure — has cost the investors dearly. With the stock plunging by over 30 per cent even after the company called off the deal, market capitalisation — market value of its shares — fell by Rs 4,600 crore to Rs 10,650 crore on Wednesday. FIIs and mutual funds which hold around 65 per cent of the equity stake suffered the maximum loss.

Earlier, angry investors, negative media coverage and questions on corporate governance made the ideal recipe to upset the appetite of the Satyam board which had on Tuesday decided to have its mirror image on its plate — Maytas is actually Satyam written in reverse. The IT firm scrapped its plan to acquire Maytas Properties and Maytas Infra — companies promoted by the sons of Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju — following a huge wave of protests from investors, fund managers and analysts. It faced stiff resistance from institutional investors such as Reliance Mutual Fund, SBI Mutual Fund, Templeton Mutual Fund and CLSA as they found the deal overvalued with little transparency and funds getting diverted to the promoters.

Markets indicated in the morning of what it thought of the proposed deal as Satyam shares lost around 30 per cent to Rs 158.05 on the domestic bourses and 55 per cent in the US market. The Satyam chairman said that he was surprised at the reaction in the markets. “

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