New Delhi, Aug 31 (Inditop.com) Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) will be the new promoter of Maytas Infra, the company founded by the family of scam-tainted B. Ramalinga Raju, Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said here Monday.
“IL&FS will be the new promoter of Maytas Infra following an order of the CLB (Company Law Board),” Khurshid told reporters here at a media briefing on the new order.
IL&FS is the biggest stakeholder with 37.1 percent in the cash-strapped company and will be required to infuse up to Rs.55 crore as liquidity support, according to the CLB order.
Out of its total equity in the company, 22.6 percent is the form of shares pledged to it by the original promoters.
On the Bombay Stock Exchange, the IL&FS scrip soared 15.92 percent to end the day at Rs.265.70, while the Maytas scrip rose 4.98 percent to Rs.112.80.
“IL&FS shall for a period of not less than two years hold a minimum of 26 percent shares in the company and shall keep management control of the company during that period,” said the order.
The minister also said the existing promoter directors of Maytas Infra, the son of the Satyam scam perpetrator B. Ramalinga Raju, vice chairman B. Teja Raju and whole-time director B. Narasimha Rao will step down from the company’s board.
Maytas is Satyam spelt backwards.
“The management is being taken over by IL&FS and the two promoter directors will now step down,” said Khurshid.
Two of the four government-appointed directors would stay on the board of the company till September 2010, he said, adding that the names would be finalised shortly.
Maytas has about Rs.3,550 crore in liabilities with about Rs.1,700 crore in bank liabilities, Rs.1,100 crore in bank guarantees and Rs.750 crore payable to vendors, the minister said.
The takeover of the board was unanimously agreed upon by all stakeholders including major lenders like State Bank of India, IDBI and ICICI Bank.
“It’s a common consensus between shareholders that this was the best approach for revival and preservation of Maytas. All the lenders are comfortable with this,” said Khurshid.
As per the existing shareholding pattern, the existing promoters control about 23 percent of the shares, while Sicom, a Maharashtra government-owned institution and foreign institutional investors hold about 6-7 percent each, mutual funds another 3-4 percent, with the rest owned by the public.
Earlier Monday, the company in a regulatory statement said it had posted a net loss of Rs.489.79 crore last fiscal compared to a profit of Rs.99.64 crore in the previous year.
Khurshid, however, said that during the first quarter of the current fiscal, the company had started showing signs of a turnaround by registering a cash profit of Rs.5 crore, compared to a loss of Rs.500 crore last fiscal.
“The company is no longer in actual loss,” he said.
IL&FS now has to go for an open offer to acquire a further 20 percent under takeover guidelines of market watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
Khurshid during his interaction with reporters also said that prima facie evidence indicated that funds had been transferred from Maytas Infra to Satyam Computers.
“When the accounts are stated, this will become clear as to where the money has gone. But there is prima facie some evidence that about Rs.390 crore has gone from Maytas to Satyam,” the minister said.
