Satyam's major investors lose Rs 1,600 crore

Fifteen major Indian institutional investors -- including Birla Sun Life, ICICI Prudential, Franklin Templeton, HDFC Asset Management, UTI Asset Management and Reliance Life Insurance -- which invested in the fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd, are understood to have together suffered 'wrongful losses' of slightly over Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion).

This is part of an estimated loss of Rs 14,162.25 crore (Rs 141.62 billion) incurred by various investors (including retail) in the company.

Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, his brothers B Rama Raju and B Suryanarayana Raju, and their kin received Rs 749 crore (Rs 7.49 billion) by offloading SCSL shares during 1999-2006, the period when the company's accounts were fradulently inflated, according to sources.

Sources added that the Central Bureau of Investigation had gathered 'adequate evidence' to prove that Satyam's then financial executives had gained over Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) by 'offloading the shares during the fraud period, when share prices were artificially kept high.'

The officials who benefited allegedly include former chief financial officer V Srinivas (gained Rs 32 crore or Rs 320 million), senior vice president -- finance, G Ramakrishna (Rs 11.27 crore or Rs 112.7 million), vice president -- finance, D Venkatapathy Raju (Rs 1.76 crore or Rs 17.6 million), head of internal audit Prabhakar Gupta (Rs 4.48 crore or Rs 44.8 million) and assistant manager-finance, Ch Srisailam (Rs 89 lakh or Rs 8.9 million).

In 2007- 08 and 2008-09, the Satyam founder, his brothers and their spouses received dividends to the tune of Rs 25 crore or Rs 250 million 'when the company was actually not making any profits,' the CBI said. They had also pledged SCSL shares 'after artificially inflating the share prices' and availed of loans from various nonbanking financial companies to the tune of Rs 1,951 crore (Rs 19.51 billion).

With regard to diversion of funds, the CBI did not disclose any significant amount. It just said the Satyam promoters had diverted Rs 72.5 lakh (Rs 7.25 million) from SCSL into front companies owned by them in the year 1999. In an earlier report, the CBI had estimated the loss suffered by institutional investors at Rs 958.98 crore (Rs 9.58 billion).

The investigating agency said a further probe had revealed that the loss suffered was higher.

The institutions and the loss suffered by them in brackets are: Birla Sun Life (Rs 111.88 crore or Rs 1.11 billion), ICICI Prudential (Rs 22.68 crore or Rs 226.8 million), Franklin Templeton (Rs 100.37 crore or Rs 1 billion), HDFC Asset Management (Rs 190.45 crore or Rs 1.9 billion), UTI Asset Management (Rs 85.97 crore or Rs 859.7 million), Canara Robeco (Rs 6,14,000), ICICI Prudential (Rs 698.67 crore or Rs 6.98 billion), ICICI Lombard (Rs 1.53 crore or Rs 15.3 million), Reliance Life Insurance (Rs 5.94 crore or Rs 59.4 million), HDFC Standard Life Insurance (Rs 218.07 crore or Rs 2.18 billion), SBI Life Insurance (Rs 22.84 crore or Rs 228.4 million). SBI Funds Management (Rs 26.5 crore or Rs 265 million), Metlife India Insurance (Rs 23.76 crore or Rs 237.6 million), Fidelity Fund Management (Rs 102.88 crore or Rs 1.02 billion) and Max New York Life Insurance (Rs 18.36 lakh or Rs 1.83 million).

The CBI had estimated the total loss suffered by investors in SCSL was Rs 14,162.25 crore (Rs 141.62 billion, based on the average share price fall after the fraud confession of Raju on January 7, 2009.