Satyam shareholders move Andhra Pradesh High Court

A group of ten individual shareholders of Satyam has approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court opposing the Satyam Computer Services-Tech Mahindra merger scheme in its current form.
The move comes even as Satyam Computer Services is awaiting approval of the merger. The group said it is not opposing the merger per se but only the share swap ratio and the way the valuation was carried out.

The petition is expected to come up for further hearing on December 3. The shareholders concerned belong to different states / territories like Kerala, Chandigarh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and are represented by G N Ravi.

The group said that the new management of Satyam has been assuring shareholders that the proposed merger would happen only after the Hyderabad-based company recovers fully from the fraud committed on it by its founder B Ramalinga Raju.

The petition recounts that Satyam was recovering from the fraud between 2008-09 and 2010-11, but its profits were wiped out due to various provisions made towards litigations to the extent of about Rs7,000 crore.

The shareholders contended that “while on the one hand the growth of Satyam continued since 2009, on the other hand the business of Tech Mahindra on a standalone basis was sliding down substantially.”