Mahindra Satyam to invest $240 mn on infrastructure

Mahindra Satyam will invest $240 million globally to set up infrastructure and support services for its clients over the next three years, top company official said in Singapore on Thursday.

"Fifty per cent of the investment will be made in Asia Pacific, especially in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia," Mahindra Satyam CEO C P Gurnani told media in Singapore.

The company is holding a series of meetings with investors, analysts and clients in Singapore.

"The majority of the investments will go into creating infrastructure, training and development facilities and solutions either in engineering or mobility to create specific solutions for the markets," Gurnani said.

Investments will be for facilities outside India and not involve any merger and acquisition or joint ventures, he said.

Mahindra Satyam, which is in the midst of completing its merger with another group company Tech Mahindra, would also be opening an office in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City within a couple of months as it expands in the Asia Pacific region.

Vietnam would be the next new market for the group, having secured two deals from the banking and finance and oil and gas industries, added Rohit Gandhi, the Singapore-based senior vice president of Mahindra Satyam for Asia Pacific, India and West Asia.

On the global plans, Gurnani said the company will consider joint ventures in Central America and South America.

"I do believe it will require some infrastructure

such as data centres," said Gurnani, adding that the potential of investments in such facilities in the two markets.

He said Mahindra Satyam, being a global business, was not impacted by the slowdown in the Indian economy, unlike some of the local businesses. "We have centres across India and we will continue to make investments in the domestic market in the future."

Gurnani also said the company will look at the rural parts of India where youths would be seeking opportunities.

"We will work with the government on opportunities in rural areas," he said, adding that nothing was planned for the immediate moment.

He also said a new brand name would be launched for the merged Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra entity by October, by when the court is expected to clear the merger.

Gurnani said three names have been short-listed for the company after its merger with Tech Mahindra -- Mahindra Satyam, Tech Mahindra or Mahindra with a new second name for the merged group.

Last month, Mahindra Group announced the long-awaited merger of Mahindra Satyam with its another technology arm Tech Mahindra in an all-share deal that would create the country's fifth largest software firm with an estimated annual revenue of about $2.4 billion.

Tech Mahindra had acquired Satyam Computer Services in April, 2010 and later renamed the company Mahindra Satyam.

In January, 2009, erstwhile Satyam Computer's founder and then chairman B Ramalinga Raju had admitted to fudging account books to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees.