The Hindu Business Line : Genpact, Quatrro ‘interested’ in parts of Satyam biz

Its deep financial troubles notwithstanding, the buyer interest in Satyam continues unabated. BPO giants such as Genpact and Quatrro are said to be “interested in parts of Satyam”.

Genpact’s interest pertains to the engineering design work or even the SAP practice, if they come at the right price. “But a lot of things needs to be clarified first, including the actual revenue, liabilities and real margins of Satyam’s business,” a source said.

When contacted, the Genpact President and CEO, Mr Pramod Bhasin, declined to comment on the issue.

But sources pointed out that Genpact may not be interested in taking over the entire Hyderabad-based company as it could change the nature of Genpact’s business.

“Genpact is primarily a business process management company…If it needs, it could acquire the tech capabilities to fill gaps, without changing its entire structure to IT,” sources said.

Industry observers feel that potential suitors are lured both by Satyam’s clientele, and its expertise.

Another company Quatrro BPO Solutions – promoted by industry veteran Mr Raman Roy – is also said to be “keen” on Satyam and its cost-effective assets.

Mr Roy declined to either confirm or deny whether Quatrro’s would look at buying-out certain operations of the beleaguered IT company.

Aegis BPO

Yesterday, Aegis BPO said it has put in an expression of interest (EoI) for Satyam’s BPO business to expand its footprint.

The company is interested in clients as well as the delivery capabilities of Satyam’s BPO business. Satyam BPO has 3,500-odd employees and counts marquee names such as Verizon and GlaxoSmithKline as its clientele.

Tech Mahindra

According to industry sources, Tech Mahindra is still keen to pick up the telecom business of Satyam relating to both IT and BPO.

However, the option of both companies merging may no longer be feasible, as that would mean taking on the non-business related liabilities of the Hyderabad-based company.

Sources also indicate that many of these acquisition opportunities involving Satyam would be necessitated by the clients of Satyam.

Satyam’s customers may wish to retain the software development team servicing them and, hence, they may push prospective buyers to acquire chunks of the business.

“The different project teams may be in different stages of software development and coding hence transitioning the project to a new bunch of people will be an uphill task,” a senior official with one of the parties interested in Satyam, said.

Lost clients

Satyam board member, Mr Kiran Karnik, on Wednesday said the company has lost only two major clients since the manipulation of the company’s accounts by the promoters became public.

“Only two clients have terminated contracts,” Mr Karnik said, but did not comment on the size of the contracts or the clients’ names. One of the clients is the US-based State Farm Insurance Co, a Fortune 500 company, which terminated its contract on Friday.

Our Bangalore bureau adds:

Mr Azim Premji, Wipro Chairman, said Wipro was not interested in taking over either Satyam or Maytas.

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