Satyam-Linked Maytas In Talks To Restructure Debt
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Satyam-Linked Maytas In Talks To Restructure Debt

By Reuters

  • 05 May 2009

Indian builder Maytas Infra Ltd, linked to the fraud-tainted founders of Satyam Computer, is in talks to restructure $34 million loans, officials said on Tuesday, sending its shares up 5 percent.

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"We are having a financial difficulty. Cash-in-hand may be there, but I have a liability also," Ved Jain, one of the four directors appointed by the government after it began a probe into Maytas, told a news conference.

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The cash-strapped company is negotiating with its 17 lenders, including State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, to restructure its debt of 17 billion rupees ($34.5 million), he said.

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Anil Agarwal, another director, said the board had approved a a corporate debt restructuring package. "In the next couple of weeks this will be on," he said.

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The company will hire SBI Capital Markets to implement the restructuring, the officials said.

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Jain said the board would pursue 5 billion rupees in receivables from customers as part of a mandate to revive the company that has seen orders being cancelled and customers worrying over the company's credibility.

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Maytas, which is controlled by the family of Satyam's former chairman Ramalinga Raju, has orders worth 85 billion rupees, the officials said.

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It was also awarded a 150-billion-rupee metro project in the southern city of Hyderabad, but Maytas missed a deadline to tie up funds for the project. The company has applied to the authorities for more time for the financial closure, Jain said.

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The company has been under the government's scanner since early January when Raju resigned from Satyam after revealing profits at the outsourcer had been falsified for years.

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In April, Satyam's government-appointed board sold a 31 percent stake in the outsourcer to Tech Mahindra Ltd after a global bidding to help revive the company.

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Agarwal said 85 percent of Maytas was controlled by the Raju family, and the officials said they would not rule out a stake sale as an option to get Maytas back on the rails.

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Maytas officials declined to talk about the government investigation that began in January, soon after the Satyam fraud was disclosed.

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Shares in Maytas, whose market value has plunged three-quarters to $49 million since early January, rose by its daily limit of 5 percent to 41.05 rupees in a flat Mumbai market on Tuesday.

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