Minister for corporate affairs Salman Khurshid on Thurday said that the government is looking at the possibility of inducting a strategic partner in Maytas Properties, the company promoted by the kins of B Ramalinga Raju, founder of the former Satyam Computer Services.
Asked whether the Union wants to find a strategic buyer for the unlisted Maytas Properties, as it did in the case of Satyam, Mr Khurshid said: “For all practical reasoning, that (strategic sale) is something that would work out… but they (board members) have to decide.” Following the admission of accounting fraud in Satyam Computer Services by Raju last year, the government appointed its own nominees on the twin companies — Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties — promoted by Raju’s sons.
Former president of the ICAI, Ved Jain, was appointed as government member on board of Maytas Properties. He was later elevated as the company’s chairman.
“Ved Jain (chairman of Maytas Properties) is working out all permutation and combination, and we are trying to give him all the help required… We have very limited option. Since we have started the process, we want to bring it to a satisfactory end,” Mr Khurshid said. Several NRIs who booked flats in projects promoted by Maytas Properties have been asking the government to expedite rehabilitation of the company.
The company had raised Rs 650 crore from customers for the Rs 1,100-crore Hill County project near Hyderabad. Maytas Properties reportedly has a land bank of about 6,000 acre.
