Satyam to decide on Australia project by Sept-Oct

Even as Satyam trouble brews in Australia for the Victoria state government over the A$75 million Geelong IT hub that hangs fire in the wake of Satyam fiasco, the new owners of Satyam, the Mahindras have said they would be taking a call on the project by September-October this year.

While the top brass at Mahindra Satyam admitted that the company did indeed have in its possession 10 hectares of land allotted by the Victoria government, they denied any knowledge of money having been given to the company.

We do have the 10 hectares of land. As for the money, it may have been spent by the government on infrastructure development in that area, Mahindra Satyams chief marketing officer, T Hari told TOI.

While, he refused to divulge whether the company had sought any more sops from the Ozzies for the project, he said they had sought more time from the Victoria government to take a decision on the Geelong project as the Australian market was one of the biggest markets for the company in the Asia-Pacific region.

At this stage, we can’t say much except that we are in the process of evaluating the project, its implications, the investment required and our own plan, given the fact that we are viewing any new investment with a fair amount of introspection and care, Hari said, adding a decision would be taken latest by October.

Mahindra Satyam V-C Vineet Nayyar is learnt to have met Victoria State authorities and discussed the project. The Victoria state government, headed by Premier John Brumby, is already in the eye of a storm over Satyam’s IT park at Deakin University that was supposed to have created 2000 jobs and added A$175 million to the states GDP.

The Brumby government is facing allegations of having not just handed over 10 hectares of prime land to Satyam, but also an undisclosed sum of money in a bid to woo the IT company.