Mahindra Satyam’s benched staff shrinks by 1,100

Mahindra Satyam has recalled 1,100 employees from its virtual pool. Of the total number of recalled staff, 500 associates have moved to some projects of Tech Mahindra, the owner of Mahindra Satyam.

Close to 10,000 associates based in India, who were not engaged in any projects for more than three months, had been put in the virtual pool.

The move is a sign that business for the embattled software exporter is improving. Hari T, the newly-appoi-nted chief people officer at Mahindra Satyam, said, “We have recalled more people. Around 627 assoc-iates have been recalled. Additionally, 500 people have been moved to few projects in Tech Mahindra.”

These associates would be given ‘basic’ pay in addition to provident fund and medical benefits. Hari refused to comm-ent on the exact size of the present virtual pool. “They are being called back for projects across techno-logies,” he said.

As per recent disclosures made by Mahindra Satyam, the company had lost around 23 customers since the scam broke.
The com-pany has also grabbed new orders worth $380 million, most of which are coming from existing clients.

“Satyam had a total of $164 million in outstan-ding forward contracts,” said an Indiabulls Research report on Tech Mahindra. The report further added that the integration of Satyam would be a test for the management as Satya-m has a large pool of disen-gaged employees.
Source:FinancialChronicle

Lift ban on Satyam, Tech Mahindra to World Bank

Tech Mahindra, the new owner of the troubled Indian IT services firm Satyam, has officially written to the World Bank seeking an end to the eight-year ban against Satyam Computer Services for allegedly providing improper benefits to the bank's staff.

The company has rebranded itself as Mahindra Satyam. 'We wrote to the bank a few weeks ago. We don't expect an immediate response as these things take time but we disagree with the claims they've made,' Australian IT quoted Tech Mahindra executive vice-chairman Vineet Nayyar as saying in Sydney.

TechMahindra BPO to hire 2,000 for Kolkata unit

Tech Mahindra’s business process outsourcing arm is looking to hire around 2,000 employees over the next 3-4 months as the company has recently signed a few deals.

“The BPO arm contributes to around 5-7 per cent of Tech Mahindra’s total revenues. We target to reach 10 per cent of the total revenues in the next 18 months,” said S V Sriram, head of BPO operations, Tech Mahindra BPO. The firm will hire mostly in its new Kolkata facility.

Tech Mahi-ndra has over 4,000 employees at the moment spread over four other centres in Noida, Pune, Chandigarh and Chennai. The company, which primarily services the telecom sector, is not looking to diversify its business because of a prob-able future merger with Mahindra Satyam’s BPO, which may happen after 6-8 quarters, said Sriram.

When asked if the Satyam BPO’s employees in telecom vertical would be taken into Tech Mahindra’s BPO, Sriram said the company does not have any such plan in the immediate future. “Except for a few top-level changes at the entity level, there hasn’t been any other change.”

TechM’s BPO gets around 80 per cent of its revenues from customers who have adopted transa-ctions-based pricing model. Besides BT, the company has three other customers in Europe, two customers in North America and four domestic customers.
“BPO sector is recovering faster than the IT sector,” said Sriram. “The deal pipeline looks healthy. We closed two large deals this quarter, one from a first-time outsourcer.”

Four govt nominees to quit Satyam board

The ministry of corporate affairs on Thursday moved the Company Law Board to recall four out of the six directors appointed by the government on the fraud-hit Satyam Computer’s board. “Now four of the directors can come back to their own professions. However, Mahindra Satyam has requested that two of the directors stay back for some more time. We are OK with it,” Salman Khurshid, minister of corporate affairs told Financial Chronicle.

A senior ministry official said that the remaining board members would be recalled in a “gradual manner” because their expertise would be required for a few more months by the newly-formed Mahindra Satyam. “As of now both the ministry and the company have decided that at least two members would stay on,” he said. Officials said former Nasscom president Kiran Karnik, CII’s chief mentor Tarun Das, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and former Securities Appallate Tribunal chair-man C Achuthan have decided to step out of the company’s board.

TechMahindra to do Satyam's $75-mn project

Tech Mahindra, the new owner of troubled Indian IT services firm Satyam, has for the first time confirmed its continued commitment to a $75 million software development project in Geelong, Australia.

There were grave concerns that the project would be axed after Satyam Computer Services founder and chairman, B Ramalinga Raju, admitted to a one-billion dollar accounting fraud in January.

Tech Mahindra executive vice-chairman Vineet Nayyar said construction of the 10ha development on Deakin University grounds would begin as soon as discussions with the Victorian government were complete and the company is determined to complete the project.

However, he warned that certain aspects of the initial agreement, including funding, could change.

"We're committed to the project ... we've got due diligence in place," said Nayyar, who is currently visiting Australia.

"The goal is to complete the project but we need to investigate how much investment is needed," The Australian quoted him, as saying.

The Geelong project was announced more than a year ago with Satyam as its main financial backer in partnership with the Victorian state government, the City of Greater Geelong and Deakin.

The software hub promises to create 2000 jobs, a much-needed boost for the region in the wake of industry retrenchments.

Mahindra Satyam reshuffles top positions

Mahindra Satyam on Tuesday announced a reshuffle of its top brass, ringing in the entry of two senior-level Tech Mahindra officials at key positions. The company also officially announced the posting of former chief executive officer A S Murty as its chief technology officer.

Ex-Tech Mahindra executive, Rakesh Soni, takes over as the new chief operating officer of the company. He will head the delivery for manufacturing, BFSI, emerging verticals and strategic accounts. He will also lead the integration, corporate plan-ning and strategy portfolio.

Another Tech Mahindra official to have got a look in is Atul Kanwar. Kanwar will head the business development and operations for the regional business groups (Europe, Australasia, West Asia, Africa and India) while Manish Mehta will head the delivery for these businesses.

In a statement, Mahi-ndra Satyam described the changes as aimed at sustaining the recovery and positioning of the company for long-term growth. “Key aspects of the new organisation design include integrating sales and delivery into a ‘two-in-a-box’ collaborative model, strengthening industry verticals, regional focus, competency groups, align-ing business consulting capabilities, and rationa-lising support functions into logical groups,” the company said.

A person close to the development said the changes had been in the pipeline for a while. “The appointees had been decided for the various posts some time ago. It was just a matter of time before they were made public,” the person told Financial Chronicle.

Another key appoint-ment is that of Keshab Panda as head of the business development and operations for manu-facturing, BFSI, emerging verticals and strategic accounts.

T R Anand will head the business development and operations for telecom, media & entertainment, tech infra and semicon-ductor verticals in addition to channel business through alliance partners, Tech Mahindra and new technology companies. Ravi Bommakanti will head the delivery for these busi-nesses. Hari T will handle the dual role of chief people officer and chief marketing officer.

“This new organisa-tional structure is aimed at providing better service to clients as well as increasing efficiency and reducing costs,” the person said.

Satyam’s new team may renegotiate $80-m FIFA deal

The new management at Mahindra Satyam is set to re-negotiate its around $80-million contract with the Federation Internationale De Football Association (FIFA) to provide customised event management system for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

The pressure to trim costs at the beleaguered IT firm has triggered this move, said a senior official privy to the development. According to him, the company reckons the contract would not be a profitable one, as Satyam has to spend a sizeable amount on branding.

According to the agreement, FIFA will pay Satyam for the IT that it renders. At the same time, FIFA will display the Satyam brand across all platforms during the World Cup as the IT firm is one of the sponsors. This sponsorship works out to be expensive for Satyam.

“Our current scenario necessitates frugal financial management and we will continue to explore all possible means to address this situation,” said CP Gurnani, the new CEO of Mahindra Satyam. But FIFA did not reply to an e-mail sent by ET last week.

This deal was perceived to help Satyam increase its revenue share in the European region, which contributed to a quarter of the firm’s revenues. It was also expected to help Satyam leverage on FIFA’s brand equity and give the firm a foothold in the entertainment and media market world-wide.

“Mahindra Satyam has got all the attention it needed, good or bad. So this deal with FIFA is not important on a branding level,” said the official. Satyam is now focusing on raising its operating margins, and cutting cost would help improve margins and profitability. “The company’s objective is to retain clients, grow revenues and increase profitability. And if the FIFA deal gives them only visibility and not profitability, re-negotiating the deal is the right thing to do,” said Gartner principal analyst Diptarup Chakraborti.

Satyam bagged the deal nearly two years ago, along with a contract to build intranet and extranet applications for the football organisation. The extranet platform for FIFA was meant to enable its member organisations communicate with each other and organise the work flow.

“It would help us in knowledge exchange between different sports practitioners, particularly medical professionals in member countries,” Charles-Henry Contamine, head (new media), FIFA, had said when the contract was announced. Satyam was to directly implement extranet and intranet applications. The Hyderabad-based outsourcer has already started cutting down on infrastructure expenses.

“Infrastructure consolidation continues to be a key area of focus and have identified cost optimisation opportunities,” Mr Gurnani had said.

Tech Mahindra open offer ends today, sees negligible response

Firm may now subscribe to fresh equity shares of Satyam in 15 days.
Tech Mahindra is expected to subscribe to fresh equity shares of Satyam Computer Services (now Mahindra Satyam) through a preferential issue to increase its stake in the troubled company, as the ongoing open offer has failed to enthuse shareholders to tender their shares at Rs 58, the price quoted under the offer that is closing tomorrow.

As Satyam shares continue the uptrend on bourses and is hovering around Rs 70-80, sources said the open offer has hardly attracted any subscription. "Tech Mahindra will neither extend the open offer date nor revise the open offer price, but will subscribe to fresh equity shares of Satyam as per the clauses of the letter of offer," the sources said.

Restructuring dampens work spirit at Mahindra Satyam

'The reorganisation is very aggressive and the parameters are not clear'.
Just around three weeks earlier, employees of Mahindra Satyam (then Satyam Computer Services) could hardly contain their joy. On the back of good positive top- and bottom-line figures for the third quarter (October-December 2008) and January-February months of CY2009, and bagging of new business orders worth $380 million (around Rs 1,800 crore), they were seen distributing sweets to their peers at various campuses of the IT outsourcing company in Hyderabad.

The mood appears to have changed dramatically. Despite the new chief executive officer of Mahindra Satyam assuring them the company and its employees (known as associates) have a great future, most associates this paper spoke to are confused and worried about the goings-on at the workplace.

While the reality of the ‘virtual pool’ is sinking in gradually, the simultaneous reshuflle at Mahindra Satyam is scaring them. “The reorganisation is very aggressive and the parameters are not clear,’’ said one associate who operates from the Infocity campus. “There is no excitement at the office for the last two or three weeks,’’ he said.

There are reasons for this despondency. He has seen a team handling a vertical dismantled. “There were two seniors at the helm of affairs and one of them has been asked to leave,’’ he said about the changes. Only last week, Mahindra Satyam had brought the roles of about 70 to 80 senior leaders under the scanner.

The company is now looking for talent from within the organisation to head some positions after the rejig. In some cases, the company is also getting people from Tech Mahindra to fill the lacunae created due to the reorganisation of staff, he said.

“The mandate is clear for all of us. We have to be ready to don a new role,’’ said another associate. He said the company has now broken down the earlier multiple levels of reporting for a particular task. “This would result in most of the employees coming in the direct firing line of higher-ups and therefore more accountable and also vulnerable at the same time. Also, another round of restructuring at the employee level is on the cards,” he added.

Some associates, according to another employee, are finding it difficult to work as there is no information from the right channel on the rejig or the direction it is heading. On the letter to the associates from the new chief executive officer, seeing a great future for the company, he said the letter did not address the uncertainty the employees were now experiencing.

“We are not feeling like attending the work,’’ he said, adding there is an increased activity at the office but the outcomes are not defined. But there are also some associates who are charged up after reading the letter from CP (Gurnani). “There are signs that the troubled times are coming to an end. Lot of fresh ideas are flowing in,’’ said another employee, talking about the delayering happening at the Mahindra Satyam. The effort is to cut the costs and increase productivity.

“The letter from CP is a boost to the associates,’’ said one Satyamite, who started his career with it and would not move out of it on his own. “There is future for us,’’ he said recollecting CP’s words.

Of course, there are those who are still searching for career opportunities outside of Satyam. Besides, many members of the Satyam Freshers’ Union, a body floated to take up the grievances of freshers who got offer letters from the company but never got to join work, are now searching for job opportunities outside.

PW auditors’ bail plea dismissed
The Andhra Pradesh High Court today dismissed the bail plea filed by Price Waterhouse auditors — S Gopalakrishnan and Srinivas — accused in the case relating to the financial scam at Satyam Computer Services.

The case came up for hearing last week but the orders were reserved for today.

The CBI argued that the two auditors have failed in their duties to reject inflated figures in the balance sheets for successive years. They were also party to the financial scam, they said. There was no merit in saying that they did not identify the inflated figures or they simply relied on the documents provided by the company, the prosecution argued.
Source: BusinessStandard

Deloitte eyes Mahindra Satyam auditor post

Audit firm Deloitte India has opted out of the work on restatement of Satyam accounts, perhaps in antici-pation of getting auditing assignment for Mahindra Satyam. Deloitte has been looking into Satyam books of past seven years, along with KPMG since January, after the scam broke out.

Mahindra Satyam is yet to appoint a statutory audi-tor. A Satyam spokesperson in Hyderabad said that no auditor had been appointed, “because it has to be done by the shareholders at the AGM.” At the same time, moves are afoot to merge Tech Mahindra and Mahin-dra Satyam.

Satyam may lay off mid level executives next

Now it is the turn of middle-level executives to be the victims of cost cutting. Mahindra Satyam plans to trim the role of its middle-level executives, from July 1. Around 70-80 senior leaders may soon become redundant, a company official confirmed.

This decision comes after the announcement that employees who have been furloughed due to lack of work may be fired. Around 8,500 idled employees may be fired in another six months unless the profits get better. The current management will be tested on accountability and the kind of work they have already done. The profits and losses their units have already made will be the measuring point for these employees.

Meanwhile, Ram Mynampati, former Satyam Executive Director is learnt to have put in his papers. He is replaced by Keshab Panda as the head of the healthcare vertical. Mynampati was also the interim CEO after Ramalinga Raju had confessed to the infamous fraud.

Mahindra Satyam CEO asks associates to stay united and committed

Within days of being named the chief executive officer of Mahindra Satyam (formerly Satyam Computer Services), C P Gurnani has laid down a blueprint to re-energise the company.

In a letter addressed to the associates (as the employees are referred to), Gurnani said the company had strengths in delivery excellence, and differentiated service offerings and domain experience. He said the organisation structure was already re-designed to make it more customer-centric and agile. The access to customers and geographic penetration is further enhanced, decision-making is being accelerated and a greater role is being given for the delivery teams in nurturing accounts.

“Let’s make a great future together. Let’s grow Mahindra Satyam into a leader displaying courage, remaining connected and with a sense of agility,’’ he said, adding it was possible only with the support of associates. “We need to stay united, committed and focused,’’ he told the associates.

The events following the confession of Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju in January had taken their toll on the company and have seriously dented its image, business and morale, he acknowledged.

After Tech Mahindra emerged as an investor in April, he said he travelled to meet the customers, associates and teams across the world. “All of them are interested in the future. I dream of an enterprise which remains connected to its customers, partners, influencers and the society in more ways than one,’’ Gurnani said.

He said he was interested in a future when Mahindra Satyam would be rated as the ‘happiest place to work in’, was ‘business savvy’, got invited to best business opportunities and won consulting and engineering services, when it emerged as ‘true partners’ of its customers, when it was recognised for its governance standards, transparency and values, when its associates were fearless and matched to business challenge.

He put on record the efforts of the board in reviving the company and the support of the families during difficult times.

8,500 jobs may be axed if work not found: Satyam

Satyam Computer Services today said 8,500 idled employees might be fired in six months, unless business picked up as the Indian software provider reorganised.

“There is a possibility” the employees who have been furloughed on reduced pay because of a lack of work will be fired, newly-appointed Executive Vice-Chairman Vineet Nayyar said in an interview. The cuts would represent 18 per cent of the workforce, based on the number of employees Satyam said it had in April.

The company will release a reorganisation plan tomorrow to cut costs and help retain customers after a stock collapse prompted by founder B Ramalinga Raju’s admission in January that he overstated assets.

The possibility of Satyam’s business improving enough in six months so that all the idled employees can be deployed is “very negligible,” Srivathsan Ramachandran, a Chennai-based analyst at Spark Capital Advisors, said. Satyam, which said it had about 48,000 employees at the time Tech Mahindra agreed to buy it, has 8,500 employees on a “virtual bench” because of a lack of orders, Chief Executive Officer Chander Prakash Gurnani had said yesterday.

70-80 senior leaders at Satyam under lens

Ram Mynampati resigns.
Mahindra Satyam is understood to have asked its middle-level leadership to shape up. The roles of these officials, according to a new plan, which will be effective from July 1, will be “trimmed” to reduce duplication, rendering the work profile of around 70-80 senior leaders redundant. Each of these employees have about six to seven years’ experience at Satyam, a company official, confirmed on condition of anonymity.

“The new owner has lost no time in communicating that it’s performance which will matter,” the official said. Those employees who are not pliable enough to meld in these new roles may be asked to leave the company, he said, adding that integration was on the cards in verticals like telecom, which is the core strength of Tech Mahindra.

He said these managers would be measured by the profits or losses their units made. "Several organisational layers would be removed. In some departments, there are double and sometimes even three layers of accountability, which is a waste of time and resources," the official added.

Tech Mahindra is also exploring the possibility of taking some senior staff from Mahindra Satyam into their company.

Meanwhile, Ram Mynampati — former Satyam executive director — is understood to have quit the company. A senior executive of Mahindra Satyam, however, said that Mynampati has “indicated his intention to resign” but he was not aware whether he had put in his papers.

Mynampati was the interim chief executive officer of Satyam for a brief period after Ramalinga Raju had confessed to the massive financial fraud in the Hyderabad-based IT company. A day after the shocking disclosure of Raju on January 8, the then 10 top leaders of Satyam, including Mynampati, issued a joint statement pledging to remain in the company and work jointly to steer the organisation. Shortly thereafter, Mynampati left for the US where he has remained till now.

Satyam: Second round of top-level appointments on Thursday

Mahindra Satyam will see another round of reshuffling of top executives tomorrow that will see outgoing CEO AS Murthy getting a new designation and US-based head of commercial division Ram Mynampati being replaced.

Mynampati, who was the President of the Commercial and Healthcare Divisions, has been replaced by Keshav Panda, sources close to the development said. Panda, who was the head of the Europe business would be replaced by someone from within the Tech Mahindra Group.

Almost no customer attrition recently, says Mahindra Satyam

Mahindra Satyam Ltd has seen almost no customer attrition since mid-April, new chief executive C. P. Gurnani said on Tuesday.

The company will also announce its reorganisation within 48 hours, he said. Outsourcer Satyam Computer Services rebranded itself as "Mahindra Satyam," as part of efforts to recover from India's worst corporate fraud. Tech Mahindra, 31 percent-owned by Britain's BT Group, won an auction in April for a controlling stake in Satyam.

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.

Ram Mynampati of Satyam quits

Ram Mynampati, the former Satyam executive director and an interim spokesperson of the company after Ramalinga Raju’s exit, is learnt to have put in his papers. He has been replaced by Keshab Panda as the head of the healthcare vertical.

Ram Mynampati was the interim CEO of Satyam for a brief period after Ramalinga Raju had confessed to a Rs 7,000 crore fraud spread across five years at the IT company. Panda who was head of the Europe business will be replaced by Vikram Nayyar from Tech Mahindra.

Satyam Computer Services, now been re-branded as Mahindra Satyam, has seen many senior management changes apart from the appointment of a new CEO and CFO in past two days.

Tech Mahindra, which now has 31 per cent in Satyam, has been keen on appointing professionals from within the M&M Group to put Satyam back on track and help erase its tainted image. These announcements are likely to be made by tomorrow. However, Tech Mahindra declined to comment on these management changes.

It is also learnt that AS Murthy, who was the Satyam CEO, will now be the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Mahindra Satyam. He was earlier the head of Satyam global delivery business. C P Gurnani will take over as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Mahindra Satyam.

Also, another old Tech Mahindra hand, Rohit Gandhi, will take over as APAC- Middle East, India, Africa (MEIA) head. It was earlier headed by Virender Aggarwal who quit Satyam three months back.

To help boost its marketing go-to strategy, Tech Mahindra has appointed Atul Kanwar, former CEO at Birla Transworks the BPO arm of Aditya Birla Nuvo, as the Global head of sales and marketing for Satyam. T Hari was earlier the head of marketing based out of London, but moved to India after the Satyam scandal broke in January 2009.

It’s official: Satyam is now Mahindra Satyam

It’s official now! Satyam Computer Services will, from now on, be known as ‘Mahindra Satyam’. The IT services major has recently gone in for a major change in its branding. Financial Chronicle had reported on May 24 about the likelihood of the fraud-hit company being renamed as ‘Mahindra Satyam’ or a similar configuration of the two words.

The logo of the company would be adopted from the Mahindra group, Satyam said in a statement. The strategic move paves the way for the emergence of a robust brand, which draws from the core values of the Mahindra Group and the inherent strength of the Satyam brand, the company said in a statement.

‘Mahindra Satyam’, an amalgamation drawing on both Satyam and Tech Mahindra, was unveiled to a small group of decision makers before going public with it, a person close to the development told Financial Chronicle. “After getting a favourable response from the group, it was decided to make a general announcement,” the person adds.

The company has charted out five ‘core values’ for the Mahindra Satyam brand, namely good corporate citizenship, profession-alism, customer first, quality focus and dignity of the individual. Ever since Tech Mahindra decided to buy a controlling stake in the troubled company, there was talk of it wanting to change Satyam’s name, which had been sullied by Raju’s scam.

Some of Satyam’s clients had asked Tech Mahindra executives to consider changing the branding as they were apprehensive about the impact their association with Satyam would have on their businesses. Brand analysts, too, had collectively opined that a new moniker would go a long way in shoring up Satyam’s public image. “Through the new name, Tech Mahindra has got the best of both the worlds,” the person says. “The new brand would remind clients about the strong points of the M&M group while also not obscuring Satyam’s strengths in enterprise resource planning and other such segments.”

EMI woes for Satyamites

Satyamites, who were moved to the virtual pool recently, are in for more trouble now. With the company agreeing to credit only the basic salary into their accounts for the next few months, the pressure of EMIs is mounting on them as in most of the cases basic pay is not enough to cover EMI.

Many employees under Virtual Pool Programme (VPP) of the IT firm who took home, personal or car loans are either worried or planning to sell their properties. Senior bank officials are admitting that associates are in for tough times and banks are in "no position to help them."

"I have a Rs 25 lakh home loan for which I pay Rs 33,000 per month as EMI. As of today my salary stands at a little over Rs 10,000 and I have no idea how I am going to pay my installments," said a middle level associate who has only managed to pay Rs 2.5 lakh of the loan amount so far. "I will personally meet the bank officials and see if something can be worked out wherein I can get a relief for six months and resume payment of my EMIs from the seventh month," the associate added.

However, bank officials said, "A gap of six months will mean more interest, and at the end the person will have to pay a higher EMI. If the interest rate increases, it would mean a double whammy for the associate," said a senior banker.

Knowing well that there is little that banks can do, some associates are packing their bags to leave Hyderabad. "The EMI for my education loan is about Rs 10,000 per month and my basic is much lesser. I am leaving for my hometown so that I can save living expenses to pay for my EMIs," said a fresher.