New Delhi, Jan 23: The government on Friday said it has not received any request from engineering giant Larsen and Toubro for making an `open offer` to acquire more than 15 percent stake in the crisis-ridden Satyam Computer Services at current market price.
"We have not received any such proposal," Corporate
Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta told reporters when asked
whether L&T, which has increased its stake in the IT company
to 12 percent by buying shares from the market, has sought
permission to make an open offer to acquire more stake in the
company.
L&T, which has raised its stake in the crisis-ridden
Satyam from about 4 percent to 12 percent and emerged as the
largest shareholder of the IT company only next to the
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).
As per the Takeover Code of Securities and Exchange Board
of India (SEBI), the engineering company will have to make an
`open offer` to buy equity from existing shareholders if it
decides to increase its shareholding in the IT company to
15 percent or more.
`Open offer` gives shareholders a chance to exit the
company by selling their stake to a prospective acquirer, in
this case L&T.
When asked whether the government would allow L&T to make
an open offer at current market price, Gupta said, "That will
be seen at the time when it comes to that."
Anybody, he added, "can raise investment up to 14.99
percent" in a company.
On the question of appointment of senior executives of
Satyam, the Minister said, "They (new board of Satyam) must be
going through various applications received from different
applicants for CEO and CFO. Let them do their work."
The board, he added, "is absolutely competent to take
all decisions without any hindrance or interference from the
government".
The new board of Satyam met for two days in Hyderabad
in its bid to steer the company out of the trouble following
disclosures of fudging of accounts by its founder Chairman B
Ramalinga Raju.
Bureau Report
