Satyam used $60 mln bank funds in Jan-March -paper

MUMBAI, April 11 (Reuters) – Fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd (SATY.BO) has used 3 billion rupees ($60 million) of the 6.85 billion bank funds that it has arranged, The Economic Times said on Saturday citing documents from a highly placed source in the company.

The firm, which could announce a buyer for a 51 percent stake on Monday, had a total collection of business receivables of about 20.6 billion rupees in the past three months, the paper said.

Three months ago, Satyam’s founder and chairman shocked investors by saying profits had been overstated for years, and putting in doubt the survival of the company once ranked as India’s fourth largest outsourcing firm.

It also repaid loans of 1.56 billion rupees and met foreign exchange losses of 1.46 billion in the period, the paper said, adding it has a closing cash balance of 2.1 billion rupees for the period-ended March 2009.

The banks that provided support to Satyam during the period were Citibank, IDBI Bank and Bank of Baroda, it added.

The highly-placed source also told the paper Tech Mahindra (TEML.BO), Larsen and Toubro (LART.BO), Cognizant (CTSH.O) and Wilbur Ross were the four final bidders for Satyam.

The company’s government-appointed board meets on Monday to receive bids from suitors but bidders face an uphill task to put a price tag on the Indian company due to uncertainty about its finances and liabilities. For story see [ID:nBOM203266]

(1$ = 50 rupees)

For a FACTBOX on Satyam, see [[ID:nBOM417149]

For a TIMELINE on key events at Satyam, see [ID:nBOM435389]

For other stories on Satyam, see [ID:nBOM394323]

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

IDBI to raise Rs 5000 crore from domestic market

Industrial Development Bank of India Limited (IDBI) a leading public sector bank, has revealed its plan to raise capital worth Rs 5,000 crore through senior, upper and lower Tier II bonds in 2009-10.

The decision was taken by the company to shore up its capital adequacy ratio for supporting business growth.

Recently, the international rating agency Fitch has assigned a rating of ‘AA+(ind)’ to IDBI Bank’s Rs 4,000 crore senior and lower Tier-II subordinated bonds and ‘AA-(ind)’ rating to Rs 1,000 crore upper Tier-II subordinated bonds, which are to be issued in the domestic market.

In a separate release today, State-owned IDBI Bank today reduced its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by 0.5 per cent to 13 per cent effective from April 15.

Shares of the bank gained Rs 0.9, or 1.68%, to end at Rs 54.40. The total volume of shares traded was 1,126,309 at the BSE (Thursday).

SBI, IDBI Bank cut deposit rates by 25-50 basis points across various maturities

That there is an apparent slide in deposit rates has become all the more obvious with two of India’s leading public sector banks  State Bank of India (SBI) and IDBI Bank  slashing their deposit rates, with the revised rates taking effect from April 13. The state-owned IDBI Bank also intends cutting its yardstick prime lending rate (BPLR) from April 15 onwards.

Announcing their respective moves a day after the bankers met RBI Governor D Subbarao, both the SBI and the IDBI Bank said that they plan trimming their deposit rates by 25 basis points to 50 basis points  or 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent – across various maturities. In addition, the IDBI Bank has also announced a reduction of its BPLR by 50 basis points to 13 percent.

Elaborating its proposed measure, SBI said that the bank’s peak rate for its 1,000 days deposit will come down from 8.5 percent to 8.25 percent. For deposits with one year to less than two years maturity, the applicable rate would be 7.75 percent, instead of the previous rate of 8.10 percent.

Similarly, the IDBI Bank specified that for one to three year maturity deposits up to Rs 15 lakh, the rate  like SBI – will fall from 8.5 percent to 8.25 percent; while for 1,100-days deposits, the rate will be 8.75 percent as against the earlier applicable 9.25 percent.