Struggle to make money from stocks

If you have been reading the financial papers for the past 2 days, you would have realized that suddenly something seemed to be happening at Satyam, and if you were more interested, you would have read that suddenly Satyam seemed to be in the eye of a storm regarding issues of corporate governance. It all started when Satyam announced that it was planning on spending $ 1.3 billion on diversification, and that too, this amount would have been spent on buying Maytas, a company in which the promoters of Satyam hold a 35% stake. This was not a deal that was approved by shareholders, and apparently not even by the board.
The shareholding of the promoters in Satyam is only 8%, with institutions holding a majority, and this action by the promoters saw an incredible reaction on the stock exchange. Immediately after this move, there was a reaction from shareholders, with the ADR on the US market falling by 52%. The next day, financial newspapers unanimously denounced this move as a gross violation of all norms of corporate governance, and in moves that would have scared the promoters, institutions threatened to review whether there is a trust in the management of the company.
Now, this proposed move has been withdrawn, but has left a mark on the management of the company that is difficult to get away; it will take time before the trust quotient can be restored:

Even as Satyam's deal to buy Maytas had to be hastily annulled in the wee hours of Wednesday morning as the company lost 52% on its ADR listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a credibility crisis has begun to grip India's fouth largest IT company. "How can we trust the management of this company and its board of directors after it tried to enter into a deal that prime facie would benefit only the promoters who just own 8% of Satyam ? We have to examine whether the management needs to be changed," cried analysts in a reflection of the deep anguish caused by the now stymied move.
"58% of Satyam is owned by FIIs and they had no inkling that such a deal was in the works. There were questions about the future of Satyam after acquiring these companies when it doesn't have any experience in these businesses. It makes more sense to deploy your funds in related businesses or pay your investors," said Sourav Mahajan, analyst with Karvy.

The company is doing fire-fighting, but this is not the US. In the US by now, with a company promoters holding 8% and with such a move, there would have a far more critical reaction. Here, institutions typically do not show much emotion even when they hold a majority of the stake in the company; in fact, the public and private displays of reaction is unprecedented. This reaction is obviously not what Satyam was expecting.
However, one expects that with the share buyback announced after this as an attempt to mollify shareholders, there may not be much beyond what has been stated; the management of Satyam (and other companies) would be a bit wiser about what they can do or cannot do. What remains true in this case is that the board of the company proved ineffectual, and needs to be looked afresh.

Labels: Corporate Governance, Deal, Equity

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