JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are among the banks shortlisted to advise the new board of Satyam Computer Services as it tries to save the fraud-stricken Indian outsourcing firm, three banking sources said on Wednesday.
The new six-member board appointed by the government to contain the fallout of country’s largest corporate scandal will consider appointing an investment banker at a board meeting on Thursday, Deepak Parekh, a board member said on Wednesday.
“Discussions are on at the moment. It is just too complicated a deal and early to say if we have the mandate. But we are talking,” a senior banker at one of the banks said. He declined to be named and did not want his firm’s identity disclosed as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
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Spokesmen at the Indian offices of JPMorgan and Goldman could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Satyam restructuring mandate would be a high-profile and potentially lucrative role for the appointed investment bank, which would be responsible for helping to keep the company afloat and for keeping investors from losing everything.
Restructurings can take many shapes, from selling off to liquidating assets, to bringing in new investors. Satyam, India’s No 4 outsourcer, has been battling for survival since its founder Ramalinga Raju resigned as chairman earlier in January, revealing profits had been falsified for years and $1 billion of cash in the books did not exist.
The new board is working to secure emergency funding and Parekh, a veteran banker and chairman of top mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp, said at a corporate governance event that the firm has pledged receivables to raise funds.
Satyam has 17 billion rupees ($346 million) in receivables and the board has said it was in talks with banks about funding. The corporate affairs minister said earlier on Wednesday that many companies were interested in buying Satyam, and another board member said several potential buyers had expressed interest.
