The Hindu Business Line : Satyam insider is CEO

“We will chart a precise and practical 30-, 60-, 90-day plan that will encompass and address the interests of all stakeholders.” -- A.S. Murty, Chief Executive Officer

A.S. Murty, Chief Executive Officer

Homi Khusrokhan, Special Advisor

Partho S. Datta, Special Advisor

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, Feb. 5 Ending days of speculation, the Government appointed Satyam Board has opted for Mr A.S. Murty, an insider, for the top slot to steer the embattled Satyam Computer Services out of the big crisis it has landed in.

Mr Homi Khusrokhan, the former Tata Chemicals chief, and Mr Partho Datta (formerly of Murugappa Group), the much touted names for the CEO and CFO posts, have been named as Special Advisors to the Board in management and finance respectively.

Other happy news for the company that came out of the two-day board meeting, chaired by Mr C. Achuthan, was also the Rs 600-crore loan from banks towards meeting working capital requirements, staff salaries assurance for January and appointment of a legal firm to fight law suits in the US.

The appointment of Mr Murty came as a surprise for many, including Satyamites, especially in the wake of reports of nearly 30 names, mostly of outsiders supposedly coming in for consideration by the board in the last few weeks.

Considered to be a close associate of Mr Ramalinga Raju, Mr Murty joined Satyam in 1994.

Prior to his elevation as CEO, he was the Chief Delivery Officer, responsible for ‘Delivery Excellence’ and Leadership Development. He was head of Human Resources and led the Insurance vertical.

Share sale

Even as Mr Murty takes over, the sale of shares by him a few days before the company’s former board took the controversial decision to acquire Maytas companies for $1.6 billion raises eye brows.

Mr G. Jayaraman, Global Head (Corporate Governance) and Company Secretary, had written to the Listing Department of National Stock Exchange on December 12, 15 and 16, 2008, about the two tranches of stock sale by Mr Murty.

On December 12, Mr Murty sold 7,000 shares and three days later he sold 14,000 shares. On December 16, he sold 19,000 shares in the open market.

Action plan

“We will chart a precise and practical 30-, 60-, 90-day plan that will encompass and address the interests of all stakeholders,” Mr Murty said, accepting the proposal to name him as CEO.

The board said that it paid salaries of Satyamites worldwide for January and fortnightly salary commitments for the associates in the US were met from internal accruals as there were healthy collections. Satyam pays fortnightly to its US staff.

Interestingly, the board has not spelt out any roadmap for finding a possible suitor. Sources in the company affirmed that the board did take stock of all the proposals for acquiring the company. But there was no specific announcement on the issue.

Still on the agenda

The statement issued on Thursday evening said that the board had not kept the issue out of sight. “Evaluating long-term strategic options remains unchanged,” it said, hinting that the issue was very much on the agenda.

Our New Delhi bureau reports:

Terming the new CEO as an “excellent person with a great track record,” Satyam board member, Mr Kiran Karnik, said, “Having an internal person obviously has a lot of advantage in terms of him knowing the company, employees and customers.”

Mr Karnik said, “There are also advantages to get an external person…In the end, we balanced everything. We thought he (Mr Murty) was the best person to be put in-charge.”

The Corporate Affairs Minister, Mr P.C. Gupta, said that Mr Murty’s long stint in the IT industry made him suitable for the job.

Also, being from within the organisation enables him to have a clear picture on `what has to be done’, the Minister said.