Satyam announces $360 million ADS issue

Mumbai: Satyam Computer's (NYSE: SAY) board of directors approved a sponsored American Depository Shares (ADS) issue against existing equity shares of the company, in its meeting on Wednesday 8 December 2004. This issue will not exceed 30 million equity shares (equivalent to 15 million ADS), including a greenshoe option, if any. The issue would aggregate $360 million, based on the closing price of the company's ADS (NYSE) on 7 December 2004. An extraordinary general meeting has been convened on 7 January 2005, to approve the issue.

Satyam is one of India's IT majors, with over 16,800 employees. Its network spans 45 countries, across six continents. It serves 350 global companies, including over 109 Fortune 500 corporations. Its principal domain competencies are in verticals like automotive, banking and financial services, insurance and healthcare, manufacturing, telecom, infrastructure, ICE and semiconductors.

Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju said that global trends towards offshoring have created an enhanced interest in Indian IT companies, and that the sponsored ADS offering would help the company become a mainstream global IT services stock. At present Satyam's ADS constitutes 10.6 per cent of its issued capital, which will go up to 20 per cent after this issue. Each ADS represents two existing fully paid-up equity shares of Rs2.