Considered to be one of the top IT companies in world, Satyam Computers, managed by its Managing Director, Ramalinga Raju, had to bite the dust in what could probably be the darkest days of India Inc and Indian Stock Markets. Their balance sheet being inflated by a whopping Rupees Five Billion (Rs.5040 Crores), board members not having knowledge of the latest (latest? this must have been going in for years!) situation, accrued interest of Rs.376 Crores, etc, etc would have definitely been a rude shock to the whole world for having entered year 2009 with full of uncertainties. Their stock prices on NSE, plunged from Rs.280+ a fortnight ago to Rs.40 (7th Jan 2009, close). To make it even more wild, their previous close, as on 6th Jan was Rs.180, thereby falling more than 75% in a single trading day!!!
Satyam's auditors, the high profile PriceWaterhouse Coopers would not be spared either. While no one knows or could even predict the outcome of this saga, the Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) confidence in India Inc is sure to do go down the drain and the Indian stock markets, once considered to be one of the best emerging markets, is definite to crash as well. It is quite surprising how a scam of such a large magnitude had 'escaped' the auditors, SEBI, Stock Exchange Boards in India, US, etc. While the masses rightly smelled a rat right after the maytas (Satyam spelled reverse) episode, a super large corporate with 53000 employees worldwide sinking in less than 2 weeks after that is quite astounding! Raju was always considered to be one of the smartest amongst his peers in India Inc, but this is something...
Oh, and I am personally and deeply disappointed about the whole episode at Satyam since it was one of my favourite and most profitable scrips in Dalal Street...sigh!
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