Wednesday, June 24, 2009

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Mahindra Satyam gets new CEO, CFO

IT services provider Mahindra Satyam (formerly Satyam Computer Services) today got a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in C P Gurnani and a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in S Durgashankar.

Gurnani replaces A S Murty who, till the rebranding of Satyam on June 21, was the CEO. Murty will continue with the company. His new designation could not be confirmed, but he is likely to get a title like ‘Chief Technology Officer’.

“What is sure is that Murty will be a senior member of the corporate strategy group,” confirmed a source. Murty was made CEO by the government-appointed board after Ram Myanampati quit the post and left the country. Myanampati has reportedly put in his papers. However, a company spokesperson declined to comment on “speculation”.

Durgashankar, as CFO, fills the long-standing vacancy left by the departure of Srinivas Vadlamani, implicated in the multi-crore fraud at Satyam and currently in judicial custody. Durgashankar, till this announcement, was Senior VP (Mergers & Acquisitions) at Mahindra & Mahindra.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Kalra — also on the board of Mahindra Satyam — was today appointed CEO of Tech Mahindra. Vineet Nayyar has now become executive vice-chairman for both Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam. The announcements were made here by Chairman Anand Mahindra.

“These executive appointments will help the respective companies leverage their immense global experience across different verticals, in their quest to take an unassailable lead,” he said. The new owners are also planning to have a common board to chart the future road map.

Nayyar, Gurnani and Kalra form the key part of the executive team at Tech Mahindra. This team was brought in from HCL just before TM went public in 2006.

“I am delighted to announce these two names. The three of us go a fairly long way. We have continued our journey through a number of companies and we have been fortunate so far. But these two individuals face the biggest challenges going ahead,” said Nayyar.

He said, going ahead, integration of both these firms is inevitable. “Both the firms will exist under the umbrella of the Mahindra family, but I don’t think they will act as two separate companies,” he added.

While Kalra, at the helm of TM, will be responsible for further deepening the domain knowledge and to broaden the areas of operations, Gurnani will have more than a handful with the challenges that Mahindra Satyam is facing.

“At Mahindra Satyam, the challenges are greater, the issue is of governance, for which I will take responsibility and see that nothing like this happens ever again. My job is to see that there is congruence and ultimately there is convergence. Governance needs to be ingrained and implanted in the area of finance,” said Nayyar.

As for Gurnani, he will have to focus on retaining clients, regain market share, bring in operational efficiencies and build a brand. The Mahindra-Satyam combination can offer art-to-part services to customers, said Nayyar. “While Mahindra brings in its manufacturing expertise, Satyam has design capabilities. With 110 customers at Tech Mahindra, there is a huge opportunity for the company to grow”.

On clients, Gurnani said since April 13 the customer attrition has been almost zero, but a much more important thing was that the firm has won several deals. Tech Mahindra has already taken the synergy proposition to several clients. One of its clients from Germany also visited the Hyderabad centre recently, said Gurnani.

While the Mahindra Satyam stock was down 5 per cent at Rs 73.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Tech Mahindra stock was up 0.99 per cent to Rs 747.45 at close of trade on the BSE.

Tech Mahindra plans to raise funds via share sale

IT firm Tech Mahindra, the new owner of Satyam Computer, plans to raise funds by selling 13.6 million shares to institutional investors.

The board of directors of the company at its meeting yesterday approved the issue of 13.6 million shares by way of private placement or Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) basis, Tech Mahindra said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The company, however, did not disclose how much it was planning to raise through this share sale and at what price the shares would be alloted.

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