Satyam shortlists three for CEO, CFO jobs

The new board of beleaguered Satyam Computer Services will finalise its decision on appointing the chief executive officer and chief financial officer of the company in the ensuing week. It would also announce additional funding arrangements by Wednesday besides deciding about the investment bankers in the next few days.

Satyam Computer also said it was close to arranging funds to meet salary payments, and maintained that its staff strength was 53,000. News reports yesterday has said the company's erstwhile chairman, B Ramalinga Raju, had overstated the numbers to siphon off about Rs 20 crore a month and that there were actually only 40,000 employees. 

The board meeting, the third in 13 days since its constitution, was chaired by Tarun Das. The board is expected to meet again on Monday and Tuesday.

The board stated that its two-day meeting "focused on issues that are a priority for ensuring business continuity".

It announced that its members have "narrowed the shortlist for the CEO and CFO positions to the final three, and would finalise their decision in the ensuing week".

The selected person would be "uniquely qualified to lead the company during this period of transition and will be a leader of global standing and recognition," it stated in a press release today.

The board also announced that "additional funding arrangements are in the final stages of being concluded". According to Deepak Parekh, this is expected to be formally announced before Wednesday and will address the company's operational needs till the end of March 2009.

The board stated it has also interacted with a number of investment bankers and would take a decision in the next few days.

According to the board, the immovable properties of Satyam, including all campuses owned by the company, are free of any encumbrance. The collections from receivables have been robust so far.

However, taking note of the "demanding financial situation", the board had discussed with the leadership team, ways and means to expedite the collections due from customers and to also execute prudent measures for cost optimisation.

Addressing the customers issue, the board members have spoken to almost two dozen key customers individually. Personalised and direct communication was also being sent to all key customers "articulating the positive developments to restore their confidence in Satyam".

Contrary to common perceptions, the board said existing customers continued to release new work orders and were expressing "positive opinions" on the timely delivery of SLAs (service level agreements) in their engagements.

"There is a profound shift in customer attitudes - from being alarmed in the initial days, it has changed to a sense of cautious optimism. The planned actions will have a distinct impact on the customer confidence," Kiran Karnik, a board member, said.

Commenting on the doubts raised regarding the headcount in the company, the board confirmed that "prima facie, there appears to be no basis to doubt the same. The independent investigation process is expected to reaffirm this fact, in the coming weeks."

Nevertheless, customer attrition was being closely monitored at the board level and it has seen "no material impact so far". The employees attrition also remained well under control. "Associates continue to show great resilience and exceptional commitment towards the company during these challenging times, in spite of the sustained media onslaught," the board commented.