Satyam may name new chief; bidders circle: reports

As the board sifts through the wreckage of the country's biggest corporate scandal, potential bidders are reportedly circling the software services exporter, attracted by its large workforce and diversified global clientele that includes Nestle and General Electric .

U.S.-listed iGate Corp is interested in taking over some of Satyam's businesses, the Business Line newspaper said.

iGate, which provides information technology and outsourcing services, sent a proposal to Satyam two weeks ago, the newspaper said, quoting the firm's CEO Phaneesh Murthy.

"I'm still waiting to hear from the new board of Satyam," Murthy told the paper, adding he was in touch with two private equity players to bring in cash.

"I believe the liabilities Satyam has would be in the range of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion. So, if the management sold parts of Satyam to different vendors then suitors like us would be taking the assets and not the liabilities," the newspaper quoted Murthy as saying.

iGate on Thursday posted lower-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, but said it would pay its first annual dividend.

Satyam's six-man board has been meeting in Hyderabad to look at how to secure emergency funding to tide the company over and pay staff.

Prosecutors allege that Satyam's disgraced ex-chairman B. Ramalinga Raju inflated staff numbers by 13,000 and siphoned off at least 12 billion rupees ($244 million).

Public prosecutor K. Ajay Kumar told a Hyderabad court on Thursday that Satyam had only 40,000 employees, not the 53,000 it has claimed, and the fictitious staff were used to transfer funds from the company.

Kumar said investigators had found forged fixed-deposit statements and other bank documents, and needed more time to see if money had been used to buy land.

Raju's defense lawyer, Bharat Kumar, told the court the claims were false.

Satyam , India's fourth-largest software services exporter, has been battling for survival since Raju resigned earlier this month, revealing profits had been falsified and $1 billion in cash on the books did not exist.

The company's board has met officials from four multinational banks to discuss the feasibility of loans to keep the company going, the Business Standard said, citing sources close to the development.

($1=49.1 rupees)

(Reporting by Janaki Krishnan; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan and Ian Geoghegan)

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