How can anyone forget that dreadful year of 2008 where in following America, India also had suffered from critical recession. Also which had left lakhs of people jobless and many more bankrupt? One such person was Raju.
Ramalinga Raju was the CEO and promoter of the SATYAM Corporation; an IT based company formed by himself and his cousin (who returned from US). The company had achieved targeted sales of 3 billion in third quarter of year 2007; it was the first Indian IT company to be listed globally and be featured in Fortune 500 list and was rolling high when the recession hit Indian shores.
The traditional business of the Raju’s of Myllapore was land and properties acquisition and thus Rama Raju was first generation proprietor to venture out of family business.
But don’t think of him as an amateur. Behind that cold and immensely mature face was a heart of loving father who just wanted the best for his children. And hence the board of Satyam consisted only family and people from immediate community. The Raju’s held almost 75% of Satyam equity.
Maytas was established as separate entity with Ramalinga Raju Jr. as the Chairperson and wife of Raju a major shareholder. Maytas was dealing in Infrastructure Business and was also awarded the Hyderabad Metro Contract before the bubble burst.
During recession in order to maintain the share price of Satyam Raju just manipulated the sales in accounts logs so as to safeguard the interest of shareholders against volatile market operations. He never laundered money nor did cheat shareholders by theft. All he did was best of shareholder’s perspective.
However one grave error Raju did was to purchase land at any given cost, without considering the prospective future of projects. This lead to heavy cash outflow directed outwards from Satyam and reducing its assets. The recession also resulted into depreciation of land valuation held in the hands of Maytas. This was the time, wherein the whistle blew exposing Satyam and Raju.
As seen Raju was not bad as person, but had a shrewd mind and natural care for his off-springs. However luck did not support him in his critical path paving his way to Tihar. However he would be out of jail in span of 14 years. Assuming the court case closes before that time.
-Vibhav Galadagekar
very unique article
very nice article