Satyam board to take view on acquisition by L&T: Gupta

The government on Tuesday said it was for the new Satyam board to take a view on takeover of the IT company by engineering giant Larsen and Toubro whose chief A M Naik met a top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, raising intense speculations about the acquisition.
    
"Government has not taken any view on that. For this, the company and the board has to take a view," corporate affairs minister Prem Chand Gupta said when asked whether L&T was in race for taking over the crisis-ridden Satyam.
    
Naik earlier in the day met secretary in MCA Anurag Goel but refused to entertain questions about the acquisition but said he has a stake in the company and has come to the ministry to take an "update".
    
L&T holds more than four per cent shares in Satyam Computer and is reportedly seeking representation on the reconstituted board of the IT company.
    
As far as the government is concerned, Gupta said the first priority would be to take the IT company out of the crisis, which followed startling disclosure by its founder B Ramalinga Raju that company was cooking books of accounts.
    
On disbanding the boards of Satyam group entities Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, Gupta evaded the question by saying he had nothing to report.
    
The government on Monday extended the scope of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) to cover the two Maytas companies, promoted by kin of disgraced founder of IT company Raju who is currently in police custody at Hyderabad.