Mahindra Satyam scrip zooms 10% on Upaid reports

Shares of Mahindra Satyam, the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services, today rose 9.92 per cent to Rs 93.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) amid reports that the IT services provider is in advanced stages of settling its long-drawn tax liability dispute with Upaid Systems, the UK-based mobile payment services company.

However, Upaid denied the reports. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Simon Joyce said, “The earlier reports that I saw were complete fiction.” Satyam officials declined to comment, saying “the matter is sub judice.”

On February 23, Mahindra Satyam had filed a lawsuit in a New York court against Upaid, seeking to make it solely responsible for any tax liability arising from an out-of-court settlement reached by them.

“Upaid has been asking Satyam to pay taxes. We kept out and no longer can keep lying down and hence knocked the doors of the New York Court,” a top Mahindra Satyam official had told Business Standard.

Last December, Mahindra Satyam had offered to settle all disputes with Upaid Systems over licence of intellectual property, among others, by paying $70 million (Rs 322 crore). Under the arrangement, it had agreed to pay $45 million upfront and the rest in the next one year.