Anand Mahindra was interested in Satyam even before scam

Mahindra group MD and Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra, who is also non-executive chairman of Satyam-owner Tech Mahindra, today said he was interested in the Hyderabad-based company even before wrong-doing in the IT firm came to light.

Mahindra group MD and Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra, who is also non-executive chairman of Satyam-owner Tech Mahindra, on Tuesday said he was interested in the Hyderabad-based company even before wrong-doing in the IT firm came to light.

HT Image

"Let me make a confession, we actually thought about it a year earlier...There were some reports about him (Raju) being pursued by IBM...and that point I had a word with him...I was always puzzled as to why he never come back to me because it looked so interesting for him," Mahindra said in an interview to a private news channel.

He said that even though Satyam was twice their size but he still saw a real fit because of the complementarity of the verticals.

"I reached out again when the Maytas issue surfaced and again got no answer. I reached out through various intermediaries and then of course the infamous confession took place and then it was a process of the government in a very exemplary manner," he said.

Tech Mahindra acquired a 31 per cent stake in Satyam for Rs 1,756 crore in a global bidding in the first round of preferential allotment, beating L&T, which is a shareholder in the company.