Mumbai, Jan 30: Global fund house Fidelity on Friday
hiked its stake in Satyam Computer for the third time in a
week, taking its total holding to 7.66 per cent in beleaguered
IT firm, which is already being eyed by a number of suitors.
Buoyed by growing interest from potential buyers and
institutional shareholders like Fidelity, Satyam shares today
surged by over eight per cent to Rs 54.05 at the BSE.
Fidelity is estimated to have purchased these shares,
through various bulk deals at the bourses, for about Rs 277
crore, and has become the second largest shareholder after
over 12 per cent held by Larsen & Toubro.
According to bulk deal data available at NSE, Fidelity
today purchased 58.66 lakh shares, representing a 0.87 per
cent stake, for about Rs 29.86 lakh.
Meanwhile, Spice Group is ready to invest about 20 billion rupees (USD 408 million) in Satyam Computer Services and wants to buy a 51 percent stake in the fraud-scarred outsourcer, Spice chairman B K Modi said.
"That is our desire," Modi said on Friday. "We want the money to go inside the company. For that they will have to make a preferential issue. If I buy shares
from the market, the money will not go into the company."
Prior to this, a regulatory filing by Satyam earlier in
the day had disclosed that Fidelity has raised its stake to
6.79 per cent through various open market deals on January 28.
Fidelity holds over five crore shares of Satyam,
equivalent to about 7.66 per cent holding.
Last week, engineering giant L&T had raised its stake in
Satyam to 12.04 per cent through open market purchases, from
about 4.5 per cent previously. L&T is believed to be among the
front runners for acquiring fraud-hit Satyam, but faced a
rival bidder in B K Modi-led Spice group yesterday.
Flush with free cash of Rs 2,000 crore, which it plans to
leverage further to raise funds for buying out Satyam, Spice
has submitted its expression of interest for the acquisition
to the company's government-appointed board.
Bureau Report