Satyam's Rs1,700-crore receivables already pledged

The financial problems faced by the fraud-hit Satyam seem to be getting deeper and deeper. While the new auditors are struggling to restate the financials of the company to raise fresh loans, the company's board is having trouble dealing with the tight liquidity.

While Satyam has already paid its overseas employees their salaries for the current month, government-appointed  director Kiran Karnik says Satyam's immediate requirement could be close to Rs700-800 crore, including payment of salaries to employees and outstanding debt.

He added that overall estimate for January would be somewhat higher than the next few months as the current month's commitments entailed payment of some outstanding debt.

Earlier, Satyam's new board member Deepak Parekh had disclosed that the company's receivables stand at Rs1,700 crore. He also said that Satyam may borrow against assets if needed.

However, media reports quote CID officials as saying that Raju had told them that he had taken loans by pledging Satyam's assets as well as receivables expected between January and March 2009.

It seems close to Rs1,200 crore was raised in loans by Raju by pledging Satyam's properties and receivables. Satyam Computer Services has been taking loans against receivables and physical assets for over 10 years from banks such as ICICI, IDBI and EXIM.