The scam-hit Satyam Computer Services will get a strategic investor in the next few weeks, union corporate affairs minister Prem Chand Gupta said on Sunday. He added that the government-appointed board of Satyam is working on a ''war footing'' to find a strategic investor to take over the beleaguered IT services firm.

However, the minister did not spell out a time-frame for completion of the bidding process or specify the companies that have expressed interest. Speaking at a stone-laying ceremony near Bangalore, he said Satyam would have to submit norms for the bidding process to the Company Law Board for approval. Once this is obtained, the bidding process can be started.

''We will follow a transparent international bidding process to select the strategic investor. Anybody can bid for Satyam subject to the guidelines laid down by the board. The entire bidding process is expected to be completed in a few weeks,'' he said. The minister made it clear that bidders for Satyam need not have prior experience in the technology sector.

The minister admitted that unravelling the fraud was a complex task for the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and other agencies like the Registrar of Companies, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the income-tax department, the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI.

Gupta said checking transactions and entries, which run into millions, needs a lot of time and effort, but repeated his statement in parliament that the SFIO is expected to complete the probe within 90 days. ''It is not proper to divulge details of the SFIO investigation at this point of time, but it is confident that Satyam fraud investigation can be concluded in the given time,'' he said.

Asked whether foreign players would be allowed to bid for Satyam, the minister said it was for the newly-appointed board to decide.

The board, in consultation with bankers Goldman Sachs and Avendus, is reportedly close to deciding the qualification criteria and the pricing guidelines for preferential allotment of shares to a strategic investor.

The CLB has authorised the Satyam board to make a minimum 26-per cent preferential allotment to a strategic investor, and raise the company's capital base to Rs280 crore from Rs160 crore, or to Rs140 crore shares from Rs80 crore.

Gupta said the new board has stabilised operations at the software firm that was on the brink of collapse after its founder B Ramalinga Raju confessed to perpetrating a Rs7,000 crore financial fraud.

''We want to ensure continued stability in Satyam's operations, and also protect the interest of the employees, shareholders and clients. Alongside, the investigations into the scam would continue and reach a logical end. We will ensure that whoever is found guilty will be punished under the law,'' he said.

He also said the probe on Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, the firms linked to Ramalinga Raju and his family, was based on the SFIO's findings. The government has approached the CLB seeking to supersede of the boards of Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties.

Satyam's board met last week to consider bid procedures, terms and conditions, but didn't publicly lay out a road map for the sale of new shares to a strategic investor. ''The board is still working on the terms and conditions for the bid process,'' said Gupta.

India's largest engineering and construction firm Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T), which has already acquired a 12 per cent stake in Satyam through market purchases, the B K Modi-promoted Spice Group, the UK-based Hinduja Group and Tech Mahindra, a unit of the Mahindra group, have shown varying degrees of interest in acquiring Satyam.

Modi warned on Sunday that Satyam would face liquidation if the government-appointed board did not speed up the process of selling a stake. He told PTI from the US that talks on fixing a reserve price for the sale amounted to delaying tactics, adding that Satyam's clients could start deserting it if a resolution wasn't found soon.

Auditors KPMG and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu are studying Satyam's accounts to find out the state of its finances. ''The auditors are working day and night on the process of restatement of accounts of Satyam and lot of work is still to be completed,'' Gupta said.