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| Khusrokhan may be new Satyam ED |
| BS Reporters / Hyderabad/New Delhi Feb 05, 2009, 00:10 IST |
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 Partho S Datta may be named director (finance).
Ending days of speculation, Satyam Computer Services’ government-appointed board is expected to induct former managing director of Tata Chemicals Homi R Khusrokhan on the board of directors as executive director (ED) and former chief financial officer (CFO) of Murugappa group Partho S Datta as Director (finance).
Minister of Corporate Affairs P C Gupta had earlier said the new appointments would have designations other than CEO and CFO.
The appointments effectively make Khushrokhan CEO and Datta CFO of Satyam. According to a company law expert, an executive director would be deemed the company’s CEO in the absence of a whole-time director on the board. The designation of CEO/CFO has not been defined in the Companies Act, 1956. On the other hand, a CFO is not a member of board, unlike a director of finance, who is accountable for financial matters and compliance related to financial reporting, under the Companies Act.
The announcements, note highly-placed sources, were expected today but the board has extended the meet till tomorrow.
Both Khusrokhan and Datta are understood to have met the senior management and HR team over the last two days. They are also understood to have begun informal talks with key clients. Besides, Khusrokhan attended the last Satyam Board meet as a special invitee to understand the problems better.
The names would have been announced earlier, said sources, but the new Satyam board was seriously mulling the buyout options that emerged with the interest of numerous suitors in the company. The names include those of Larsen & Toubro (L&T, which owns about 12 per cent) and B K Modi-owned Spice group (both asking for management control), Mahindra & Mahindra, Hinduja group, Essar group (Aegis BPO), HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and iGate. Other unconfirmed names include Fijustu, Hitachi and IBM.
Most of these suitors, however, are believed to have asked for four to eight weeks to do their due diligence before they come out with a concrete proposal. They are also waiting for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to issue details about relaxing norms for an open offer for Satyam-like cases.
Sebi begins probe: In related developments, a five-member Sebi team — which was granted permission by the Supreme Court to interrogate the founder and ex-CEO Ramalinga Raju and his brother and ex-MD B Rama Raju yesterday — started its interrogation around 9.45 a m. Sebi general manager Sunil Kumar and his associates have been given three days to meet the accused, who are in the Hyderabad central jail.
However, S Bharath Kumar, counsel for the Raju brothers, said: “I will raise objections after getting a copy of the Supreme Court order.” Bharath Kumar added the Raju brothers have no legal assistance because they are in a prison. Also, he said, they do not have any records to project their perspective of the issue and the confined jail atmosphere is not conducive to make any voluntary statements.
“We will question the validity of statements extracted in a confinement,” he said.
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