Small investors bank on Satyam as big players exit

Individual shareholders continued to buy shares of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services in the fourth quarter of 2008-09 even as foreign institutional investors, mutual funds and insurance companies pruned their ownerships in the Hyderabad-based company after its founder B Ramalinga Raju had admitted to an accounting fraud to the tune of Rs7000 crore on 7 January.

The share of investors owning less than Rs100,000 in Satyam stocks surged to 35.04 per cent in the three months ended 31 March from 12.39 per cent in the quarter ended 31 December 2008, according to a shareholding pattern released by the company to the stock exchanges.

The total shareholding of individual shareholders, including those owning more than Rs100,000 worth of shares of the company, jumped to 37.47 per cent in the reported period from 12.99 per cent in the preceding quarter, the break-up showed.

On the other hand, FIIs reduced their stake to 15.67 per cent in the March quarter from 44.82 per cent in December. Other investors based outside the country also dumped the software maker's shares. Shares held by custodians and against which Depository Receipts have been issued declined to 13.04 per cent from 19.39 per cent in the period.

Most of the earlier FII shareholders in Satyam with holding of over 1 per cent are missing from the current list. Aberdeen Asset Managers, Swiss Finance Corporation and Lazard Asset Management, which owned more than a 2 per cent stake each in the company, reduced their stake to below 1 per cent. The government of Singapore and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance are other missing names.

On the other hand, Larsen and Toubro, which was one of the contenders for acquiring the firm, along with L&T Capital, have increased their stake to 12.04 per cent between January and March 2009. The construction and engineering company did not own any shares of Satyam in the December quarter.

The total holding of the insurance companies also declined from 9.34 per cent to 4.81 per cent, while shares of mutual funds dropped from 6.22 per cent to a mere 0.67 per cent in the quarter.