The AP high court on Tuesday stayed the moves of the Income Tax department to encash the bank guarantee worth Rs 617 crore tendered by Mahindra Satyam. Granting an interim relief to IT consulting and outsourcing firm Mahindra Satyam, the court also ordered a status quo on the assessment proceedings.

Under the directions of the Supreme Court, the company deposited a bank guarantee of Rs 617 crore last April with the I-T department against its notice for the same amount from 2003-04 to 2008-09, the years for which Satyam Computers, the erstwhile owners of the company, was asked to pay tax. The bank guarantee that Mahindra Satyam subsequently furnished was valid until December 31, 2011.

Earlier, when the Central Board of Direct Taxes wanted to encash the bank guarantee, Mahindra Satyam moved the Andhra Pradesh High Court requesting for relief as the date of encashing the guarantee had lapsed and that it was challenging the CDBT’s fundamental claim of taxing the fraud-hit firm. The Income Tax department slapped this notice after disallowing exemptions claimed by the company.

The company has received draft notices of demand for Rs 1,037 crore and Rs 1,075 crore for assessment years 2002-03 and 2007-08. Ever since payment was demanded of Satyam, the firm has been constantly engaging with the tax department saying the computation of the tax dues were made based on the fictitious revenues recorded by B Ramalinga Raju, the founder of Satyam. Satyam has been seeking return or adjustment of taxes paid on inflated income when the company was still managed by the former management.

Mahindra Satyam has in several writ petitions filed before the AP High Court, challenged the re-opening of the assessment of AY 2002-03 and sought directions that fresh assessments should be carried out after removing the fictitious sales and fictitious interest.

All through, the I-T department has said there is no provision in the income tax law that allows a company to understate its income and re-compute tax liability after the assessment has been completed.

In August last year, the I-T firm set aside Rs 400 crore as provision for taxation anticipating a demand for payment of tax.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2011, it paid taxes of Rs 42.55 crore and Rs 58 crore for 2010-11. The company also challenged in the high court the I-T department’s decision to call for a special audit of accounts for 2001-07. Satyam Computer Services, which was hit by a Rs 7,000-crore fraud committed by its owner B Ramalinga Raju, was taken over by the Mahindra group in 2009 and renamed Mahindra Satyam.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/High-courts-I-T-relief-for-MSat/articleshow/11707326.cms

Information Technology (IT) consulting and outsourcing company Mahindra Satyam, (formerly known as Satyam Computer Services) has made 123 people defendants in the lawsuit filed against its former board of directors, certain employees and the company’s former audit firm Price Waterhouse (PW), a source close to the development said.

These include Ram Mynampati, former president and interim CEO of Satyam, and the previous management, comprising founder-chairman B Ramalinga Raju, his brother and former managing director B Rama Raju, and former chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani.

“Also included in the list are four former employees of Satyam’s finance department, who are being prosecuted by the Central Bureau of Investigation. PW India, PW US and their partners are also in the list,” said the source, requesting anonymity.
When contacted to enquire about why the Mahindra Satyam management delayed in filing the lawsuit, a company spokesperson, who didn’t want to be named, said they were awaiting the right time.

“We already had major cases like Upaid, SEC and the US class-action suits and didn’t want to deviate from those important issues. Now that they have been settled, we went ahead with the case against the former management and others,” the spokesperson said, confirming that Mahindra Satyam bosses had received emails with regard to the civil suit filed by PW India against Satyam.

The source said Mahindra Satyam may seek more damages than the amount it sought in the petition. “Though the company agreed to settle some issues, which involved huge payments, the total amount for settling these cases was not paid as the Indian government’s Authority for Advanced Ruling approval has not yet been in place. Once they are settled, the damages may go up. To that extent, the company has reserved the right to seek more damages,” he said.

The scheme of Advance Rulings has been introduced under the Income Tax Act, 1961, to provide facility of ascertaining the income tax (I-T) liability of non-residents, to plan their I-T affairs well in advance and to avoid long-drawn and expensive litigation.

Mahindra Satyam had settled its cases in the US after paying $125 million (Rs 6.591 crore) to close its class-action suits, and $70 million (Rs 368.9 crore) to Upaid Systems.

UK-based Upaid had filed a case against Satyam in December 2009 pertaining to alleged forgery in the transfer of certain software to Satyam. Another $10 million (Rs 52.7 crore) was incurred in settling with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the source, the contents of the lawsuit filed against the former management would become a public document in a week as it has to go through several stages within the court process.

“The court has already given the number (to the petition). But this being filed in a civil court, it is still in the initial stages. It would take a week for the record to become final,” the source said.

Source:http://business-standard.com/india/news/mahindra-satyam-names-123-in-lawsuit/461439/

Tech Mahindra will be rolling out a wider range of services for the MEA region’s telco providers

Tech Mahindra, the IT arm of the Mahindra & Mahindra Group, is looking to expand its reach in the West Asia and Africa (MEA) region by tapping into newer markets and industry verticals, as well as forge new strategic partnerships with key businesses, to drive revenues.

Toward this objective, the systems integrator and business transformation consulting organisation has said it will reinforce its leadership and focus across operations in the region. In line with this move, Tech Mahindra recently appointed Girish Bhat as the new vice-president of sales and operations for MEA region. He is expected to drive business and synergies for the company.

The increasing popularity of business process outsourcing (BPO) and security solutions has made these areas new focal points for growth across the MEA region.

Tech Mahindra announced that it will be rolling out a wider range of services for the MEA region’s telco providers, adding new offerings like value-added services (VAS), BPO, e-security, infrastructure management and network services.

“As the whole MEA region moves toward recovering from the impact left by the recent economic downturn, local telco providers have demonstrated a key shift in their IT spending practices, revealing a concentration on acquiring turnkey outsourcing of applications across the business support services (BSS)/operations support services (OSS) segments,” said Bhat.

Bhat has more than 22 years of industry experience that spans diverse geographies. Prior to his new position, he served as the head of the Africa region at Tech Mahindra, where his leadership skills and strong business acumen were instrumental in strengthening the company’s business in the continent.

In the late afternoon, Tech Mahindra was trading at around Rs575 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange, 3.65% up from the previous close.

Source:http://www.moneylife.in/article/tech-mahindra-to-focus-on-west-asia-africa-operations/22214.html

Europe is the largest market after the United States for India’s $76 billion information technology industry that gets more than 90 percent of its revenue from providing services such as developing software applications and managing call centres.

“We are living in uncertain times. The current euro zone crisis has the potential to significantly impact the market conditions,” Mahindra Satyam Chairman Vineet Nayyar told reporters at the company headquarters in southern city of Hyderabad.

He said the troubles in Europe could hit the near-term outlook for outsourcing demand from overseas clients, but spending on technology services in the long term was expected to remain strong as global corporations look to cut costs.

The company, which was bought by Tech Mahindra in 2009 after it was hit by India’s biggest corporate fraud, expects its merger with the parent to be completed next year, Nayyar said.

Mahindra Satyam said net profit for the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 soared to 2.38 billion rupees ($47 million) from 233 million rupees a year earlier, as it added 36 new customers in the quarter.

Analysts had forecast a net profit of 1.98 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company had reported the year-ago quarterly results for the first time since it was hit by the financial fraud, and was still reeling under client and staff exits.

“This company had a near-death experience two-and-a-half years ago,” Nayyar said, referring to the disclosure of the fraud that had threatened the existence of what was then India’s No. 4 software services exporter.

Satyam Computer, as it was previously known, had stunned investors in January 2009 when its former chairman and founder Ramalinga Raju said profits had been overstated and assets falsified in a fraud allegedly worth more than $1.5 billion.

Raju was granted bail last week by India’s Supreme Court in the fraud case.

“By the results which we are giving today, I think it would be safe to assume that the period of convalescence is now almost over and we are back to health,” Nayyar said. “We are ready and we will give the competition the run for the money.”

Mahindra Satyam competes with bigger local rivals including Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Ltd as well as global majors such as IBM and Accenture for winning large outsourcing contracts.

Tata Consultancy, India’s top software services exporter, on Wednesday announced a $2.2 billion order, its second-largest ever, and said its overall business pipeline continues to be positive despite a tough economic environment.

Indian markets were closed on Thursday for a public holiday.

Shares in Mahindra Satyam, which has a market value of $1.7 billion, are up 10 percent this year, outperforming a nearly 17 percent fall in the sector index and 15 percent fall in the Mumbai market.

Source:http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/10/idINIndia-60435420111110

IT firm Mahindra Satyam today posted a 10-fold growth in profit-after-tax to Rs 238 crore for the second quarter of the 2011-12 financial year.

The company’s profit-after-tax stood at Rs 23.31 crore in the July-September quarter of the 2010-11 fiscal.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Mahindra Satyam’s profit-after-tax was up 5.77 per cent from Rs 225 crore in Q1, FY’12.

The company’s consolidated revenues surged by 27.01 per cent during the quarter under review to Rs 1,578 crore from Rs 1,242.4 crore in the corresponding period a year ago.

On a Q-o-Q basis, Q2 revenues were up 10.04 per cent from Rs 1,433.93 crore in the first quarter of the 2011-12 financial year.

Commenting on the results, Chairman Vineet Nayar said, “Our growth momentum continues for the fifth consecutive quarter. As we come toward the end of our three-year transformation journey, it is indeed satisfying to see that all our key business performance indicators, such as growth, profitability and talent retention, are on course.”

“We have shown significant improvement quarter-on-quarter in spite of an uncertain macroeconomic environment,” he added.

The company added 36 new customers during the quarter. The total headcount of the company stood at 32,092 as of the quarter ended September 30, during which net addition of 654 personnel took place. Attrition stood at 15.6 per cent during the quarter.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/earnings/earnings-news/mahindra-satyam-posts-10-fold-growth-in-q2-pat-to-rs-238-crore/articleshow/10676808.cms

Tech Mahindra and Spanco today denied reports of mass job cuts at their Nigerian call centres, which manage services for Airtel, and said they plan to expand outsourcing operations in the African country.
The Nigerian media had reported that Tech Mahindra and Spanco were planning to retrench 50% of the call center agents as part of cost-cutting measures.
The media reports had led to widespread protests by agents, following which the IT companies had to close their call centres on September 30.
The two IT companies in a joint statement said, “There is no issue of mass sack but expiration of existing contracts. Prior to the expiration of the contracts, we had engaged representatives of the Agents and that of the organised Labour on how to manage their transition to our roll.”
“Due to a lack of consensus on the way forward and an apparent threat to our facilities by some of the agents, we were compelled to suspend operations at the call centres last Friday, September 30, 2011.”
Sources said Airtel operations were not affected with the development.
Airtel had entered into an agreement with Tech Mahindra and Spanco in October last year for outsourcing of core customer service functions of African operations. Airtel currently has over 40 million customers across its African countries.
Tech Mahindra and Sapnco said they jointly inherited over 1,600 Call Centre agents from Bezaleel, HR Index and CCSNL who hitherto provided agents for the company known then as Zain.
The contract existing between Indian companies and two of the agencies namely CCSNL and HR Index expired effective Friday September 30, 2011. The third agency, Bezaleel’s, contract will expire in January 2012.
The statement further said the companies have plans to recruit new agents and also offer some of the affected agents a new contract with attendant salaries and benefits based on their qualifications and experience.
“Our vision is to expand the Call Centre business in Nigeria to 5000 capacity, ultimately. On the issue of salaries, we state categorically that as world class organizations, we offer our employees remuneration and benefits comparable to standards across the world and in compliance with the working and labour laws of Nigeria,” the call center operators said.

Source:http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/tech-mahindra-spanco-plans-to-expand-nigerian-call-centres_594581.html

In the year 2000, the then President of the United States, Bill Clinton, complimented India on its achievements in high technology areas, citing the example of Infosys, Wipro and Satyam. In spite of the slowdown in the global economy, the Indian software industry is maintaining its growth rate, with the top 5 IT companies in India leading the way.

TCS

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), headquartered in Mumbai, was founded in 1968 and began as the “Tata Computer Centre” for Tata Group, who was primarily involved in providing computer services to other group companies. FC Kohli was the first General Manager and J.R.D Tata was the first chairman. N Chandrasekaran is the CEO and Managing Director, S Mahalingam is the CFO and Executive Director, and Phiroz A Vandrevala is the Executive Director and Head-Global Corporate Affairs.

TCS offers a consulting-led integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled services, which are delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model. Their revenue for the fiscal year ending March 31 is $8.2 billion. Its total assets for 2001 are $7.215 billion. It has been listed on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSY) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSY).

It is one of the largest private sector employees in India with core strength of 202,039 employees, and is the second-largest employer among the listed companies (Coal India Limited is the largest employer). The products offered are TCS Bancs (a market-ready universal financial platform for banking, capital markets and insurance), digital certification products, and healthcare management systems. Also, its services include outsourcing, BPO, and software products.

Wipro

Headquartered in Bangalore, Wipro is a global information IT services company, headquartered in Bangalore. Wipro Technologies is the global technology and consulting division of Wipro Limited. It caters to niche segments of consumer products and lighting solutions, in addition to its IT business. It started its technology business in 1980 as a subsidiary of Wipro Limited on the New York Stock Exchange, and has also been listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange.

It was the first company to market the first indigenous homemade PC from India in 1975. Following a dispute over investment and intellectual property between IBM and the Indian government in 1977, Wipro had no major competitors, which helped its entry into the IT business.

It was the first software provider company in the world to be assessed at the SEI Level 5, in 2000. Its segments include IT services, IT products, consumer care and lighting products. It has net assets totaling to $ 8.182 billion, and 120,000 employees.

Infosys

Formerly Infosys Technologies, headquartered in Bangalore, is the second largest IT Company in India with 133,560 employees and net assets worth $7.010 billion. Having offices in 33 countries, it offers software products for the banking industry and business process management services, it also provides end-to-end business solutions. Its products include Finaclem Flypp, and mConnect

It was founded in 1981 by N.R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Kris Gopalakrishnan, S.D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh, Ashok Arora, and N.S. Raghavan (who was officially the first employee). It has been listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. According to the Forbes magazine, since its listing on the BSE, till 2000, the sales and earnings of Infosys compounded at more than 70 percent a year.

Mahindra Satyam

It is the brand identity of Satyam Computer Services (In 2009, chairmen Raju resigned after publicly announcing his involvement in a massive accounting fraud, owing to which its shares fell 55 percent on the New York Stock Exchange), which was founded in 1987 by B Mahalingam Raju, is headquartered in Hyderabad. It is now a part of the Mahindra Group (one of the top 10 industrial firms based in India). It provides services in the areas of business consulting, information technology and communication services.

According to a study by Dataquest Research, it ranks 17 in the list of IT service providers. It has 31,438 employees and net loss of 233.3 crore (even though the company got a profit of 245 crores for the July-September quarter of 2010, its outside payments of nearly 570 crores led to a consolidated net loss of 327 crore. Satyam posted a consolidated net profit of 225.2 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2011.

HCL Technologies

HCL Technologies, the fourth largest IT Company in India, headquartered in Noida, is the IT services arm of HCL Enterprise. It employs more than 85,000 people and has consolidated net revenue of $3.5 billion. It has global offices in 26 countries, and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange of India.

It was founded in 1991, when HCL’s research and development wanted to tap the growing IT services industry.

It provides services across six business lines-engineering and R&D Services, Enterprise Transformation Services, BPO, Custom application services, IT Infrastructure management, and Enterprise Application services, while maintaining and extending its leadership in product engineering.

Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Most_Respected_IT_Companies_in_India-nid-90442.html

The merger entity of Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam may emerge as a formidable competitive force in the Asia-Pacific region, especially for Indian IT service providers and other regional players, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

IDC, a premier global provider of market intelligence and advisory services, further said the joint go-to-market initiatives between Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam as the foundation for future integration proved to be a success model that clinched 10 new clients for Mahindra Satyam last year.

“A combined revenue base in excess of USD 2 billion with approximately 20 per cent coming from emerging markets (Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East) will give the merged entity a strong growth story,” the report said.

The IDC Insight is based on presentations and discussions at a Mahindra Satyam analyst meet held on July 8.

“In addition, the merged entity will have a well-balanced split in revenue from the United States and European markets where its immediate competitors (ie Indian IT players) have found it difficult to maintain the balance,” IDC said in its latest report.

Commenting on margins, the report said in order to maintain margin levels, it will be essential to leverage Mahindra Satyam’s intellectual property and product delivery model.

Potentially, the next stage of consolidation after the Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra merger would be to bring Mahindra’s business process outsourcing (BPO) services into the fold to build up the scale of its operations in domestic and global markets.

The joint initiative resulted in 10 new wins for Mahindra Satyam over the past year, including a transformation services deal for a telecom operator in Australia, transportation management solution for a major telecom operator in the United States, customer analytics for a major Canadian telecom operator and a cost reduction as well as compliance solution based on Oracle for GE-Energy.

“Going forward, the two companies have identified 20 telecom accounts for further focus across operational and billing support systems (O/B SS), decision support systems (DSS) and extended EBS,” the IDC report said.

“In the EBS space, focus areas will include business analytics, point of sale (POS) solutions for telecom retail stores and property management for telecom operators,” it added.

IDC also opined that in order to make the joint initiatives taken up by Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam — which it dubbed the ‘M-Cube Advantage’ — work, it will be crucial to take the ongoing integration of Mahindra Satyam and Tech Mahindra to its logical conclusion.

At the customer panel in the analysts meet, representatives from leading corporates spoke highly of their experience with Mahindra Satyam and their commitment to continue further their relationship, IDC said in its report.

Source:http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/tech-mahindra-mahindra-satyam-may-be-major-it-player-idc_579893.html

With multiple projects underway across the Middle East, Indian IT outsourcing company Tech Mahindra said its penetration levels in the GCC exceeded 100 per cent.
Tech Mahindra, which posted a 15.4 per cent year–on-year growth to $289.8 million in global revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2011-2012, said it plans to focus on expanding its footprint in Saudi Arabia and would step up investments to further bolster its regional foothold.

While Tech Mahindra has done projects in the IT space, the strategy is to offer a broader range of services to operators covering e-security, infrastructure management services and network services also to customers and prospects in the Middle East, the company, which is part of the Mahindra Group, said in a statement. “We continue to build our business portfolio at a measured pace, despite low discretionary spend in the telecom vertical. This has been enabled by our diversification into new geographies and customers,” Tech Mahindra Chairman Anand Mahindra said.

“The Middle East and Africa are clearly the emerging markets that are crucial for our growth,” said Krishna Gopal, Tech Mahindra Vice-President for MEA Sales.

“These markets offer us the opportunity to develop and showcase some of our high0end capabilities in terms of consulting, system integration and managed services. Our wins and healthy ongoing traction bears testimony to our growth momentum in the region and we will continue to leverage the same.”

“Operators are currently seized with the issue of controlling costs, increasing revenues and sweating assets. Tech Mahindra aims at addressing these issues by enabling businesses to focus on core business and handle key functions like IT and networks. Present trends also show an increased focus on market segmentation and customer loyalty,” the statement adds.

Some of the company’s offerings can be leveraged across key industry verticals. One that offers itself immediately is e-Security, where it has already started working with a leading bank in Dubai. In addition, software testing and infra services are areas where the company plans to use the Mahindra Satyam customer or prospect base to seek revenue streams.

Business process outsourcing, or BPO, and security are new areas of growth in addition to systems integration work.

In the second quarter, the company’s operating profit was $54.1 million and showed an increase of 16.6 per cent. Profit after tax was $61.7 million, representing a 96.3 percent increase and a 203.6 per cent quartet to quarter rise.

Tech Mahindra has also posted a total head count of 42,850 with 27,920 software professionals, 13,804 BPO employees and a support staff of 1,126. The company added 4,517 personnel during the first quarter, where 2,793 were in BPO.

Other developments during the first quarter include the decision to select Nigeria as the headquarters for Tech Mahindra’s BPO operations in Africa with operations already commencing in Gabon. The company has been selected by Microsoft to set up an authorised Encoder Conformance Testing Lab for video encoders used in deployment of IPTV solutions on Microsoft Media room based platforms.

“We have aligned ourselves with changing customer priorities and needs, which has helped us navigate in these volatile times. Our continued focus on core competencies has enabled us to show sustained growth across our key clients and geographies. The changing macro economic conditions could pose new challenges, which we are closely monitoring,” said Vineet Nayyar, Vice-Chairman, Managing and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra.

Source:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/biz/inside.asp?xfile=/data/business/2011/August/business_August359.xml&section=business

Tech Mahindra, an IT outsourcing company offering web development, Offshore development, application development, software development and is part of the Mahindra Group, has released the consolidated financial results for its first quarter ending June 30, 2011, revealing a 15.4% Year-on-Year (YoY) growth in global revenue.

The report shows that revenue for the first quarter reached $289.8m, up by a 4.1% Quarter-on-Quarter (QoQ) growth. The company has also revealed some new wins during the first quarter for the Middle East and African (MEA) regions. With multiple projects underway across the Middle East, Tech Mahindra is enjoying penetration levels in GCC countries exceeding 100%. Operators are currently seized with the issue of controlling costs, increasing revenues and sweating assets. Tech Mahindra aims at addressing these issues by enabling businesses to focus on core business and handle key functions like IT and networks. Present trends also show an increased focus on market segmentation and customer loyalty.

In the Middle East region, Tech Mahindra has strong relationships with all operators and the company plans to focus on expanding its footprint in Saudi Arabia and are investing in efforts to make that happen. While Tech Mahindra has successfully done projects in the IT space covering OSS, BSS, ERP, EAI etc, the strategy is to offer a broader range of services to operators covering VAS, BPO, e-Security, Infrastructure Management Services and Network Services also to customers and prospects in the Middle East.

Some of the company’s offerings can be leveraged across key industry verticals. One that offers itself immediately is e-Security, where it has already started working with a leading bank in Dubai. In addition, software testing and infra services are areas where the company plans to use the Mahindra Satyam customer or prospect base to seek revenue streams. Also, with the recent contracts around Managed Services, Tech Mahindra has positioned resources and also hired resources locally. BPO and Security are new areas of growth in addition to systems integration work and managed services.

“Middle East and Africa are clearly the emerging markets that are crucial for our growth,” said Krishna Gopal, Vice President, MEA – Sales, Tech Mahindra. “These markets offer us the opportunity to develop and showcase some of our high end capabilities in terms of consulting, system integration and managed services. Our wins and healthy ongoing traction bears testimony to our growth momentum in the region and we will continue to leverage the same.”

Tech Mahindra also reported that revenue, in terms of a constant currency basis, came to $284.1m, which increased by 2% QoQ. The company’s operating profit was $54.1m and showed an increase of 16.6% YoY. Profit After Tax (PAT) was $61.7m, driving in a 96.3% YoY increase and a 203.6% QoQ. Tech Mahindra has also posted a total head count of 42,850 with 27,920 software professionals, 13,804 BPO employees and a support staff of 1,126. The company added 4,517 personnel during the first quarter, where 2,793 were in BPO.

“We continue to build our business portfolio at a measured pace, despite low discretionary spend in the telecom vertical. This has been enabled by our diversification into new geographies and customers,” said Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Tech Mahindra.

Other developments during the first quarter include the announcement of Nigeria as the headquarters for Tech Mahindra’s BPO operations in Africa with operations already commencing in Gabon. Also, the company has been selected by Microsoft to set up an authorized Encoder Conformance Testing Lab (ECT Lab) for video encoders used in deployment of IPTV solutions on Microsoft Media room based platforms.

“We have aligned ourselves with changing customer priorities and needs, which has helped us navigate in these volatile times. Our continued focus on core competencies has enabled us to show sustained growth across our key clients and geographies. The changing macro economic conditions could pose new challenges, which we are closely monitoring,” concluded Vineet Nayyar, Vice Chairman, MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra.

Source:http://www.ameinfo.com/273008.html

Software company Tech Mahindra Ltd. is set to sign a large contract to provide call center services to a top mobile phone operator in India in a deal that is likely to push the pace of revenue growth at its business process outsourcing division beyond last fiscal year’s 26%.
A large deal for the company is usually in the range of $15 million to $150 million for three years, Sujit Bakshi, president, corporate affairs and BPO, said in a recent interview. Based on the volume committed by the telecom service provider currently, the deal is likely to earn revenue of more than $15 million in three years.

“We have tied up with them, but the [signing of a] master services agreement takes time,” Mr. Bakshi said, adding that the company will sign the agreement in a month’s time.

Tech Mahindra’s BPO division offers voice- and non-voice-based back office services to telecom companies, in line with its parent, which also focuses on providing software outsourcing services to the sector.

The BPO division’s clients include top telecom operators in India Bharti Airtel Ltd., Idea Cellular Ltd. and Reliance Communications Ltd.

Mr. Bakshi, however, declined to name the latest client, but said the company had signed a similar deal in the just-ended quarter with the same company in another market. In February, Tech Mahindra signed a contract with Vodafone Group PLC’s unit in Qatar to offer technical solutions to the telecom company’s customers.

Mr. Bakshi also said the estimated value of the deal is vulnerable to volatility in the mobile phone market in India, which recently let users change service providers without changing their phone numbers. “Especially with this churn [in India's telecom sector] from number portability, nobody will give a firm forecast for one year,” he said.

Pune-based Tech Mahindra’s note of optimism on its BPO business comes as growth in the sector lags the country’s high-profile IT services industry, weighed down by the global economic slowdown, declining billing rates offered by clients and higher staff costs.

The financial performance of the company’s main IT services division has also been patchy in recent years due to its overdependence on the telecommunications sector. Telecom service providers the world over have been hit by a drop in consumer spending after the global financial crisis.
Research firm Gartner Inc. expects the worldwide BPO market to grow at an average annual rate of 5% to $208 billion in 2014 from $172 billion in 2010.

The latest deal is also based on a pricing model in which Tech Mahindra can earn a margin over each call on the client’s network through efficient utilization of staff, Mr. Bakshi said.

Mr. Bakshi expects the latest deal, along with the large contract it received from Bharti Airtel in Africa last year and a multi-million dollar partnership with a telecom client in the Philippines signed earlier this year, to spur revenue growth in the division in this fiscal year.

In the last fiscal year ended March 31, Tech Mahindra’s BPO division reported $70.5 million in revenue. The BPO division accounted for nearly 7% of the company’s $1.13 billion total revenue. Revenue from Airtel in the last fiscal year was less than $1 million, Mr. Bakshi said.

He also expects the additional business it recently won from an existing client in the U.S. and the U.K. to power revenue growth this fiscal year.

Mr. Bakshi said the division is currently chasing a number contracts from most of the service providers in the developing African telecom market. Tech Mahindra recently opened an office in Nigeria, which will be the headquarters for its BPO business in the continent.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584004576417120773645778.html

Tech Mahindra has made Nigeria the headquarters for its business process outsourcing (BPO) and plans to scale up its African operations , the company said today.

“We are extremely excited to be part of the growing market of Africa. We have already helped our customers in Africa reduce their operating costs and generate new revenue streams.

Tech Mahindra has recruited over a thousand local employees in Nigeria and it is our strategy to nurture local talent for effectively executing our BPO operations,” Tech Mahindra President (Corporate Affairs & Business Services Groups) Sujit Baksi said.

Over a period of two years, we plan to reduce the expat head count considerably and develop the workforce locally to run the operations. Tech Mahindra has now joined the league of Indian IT companies with significant headcount in the region, Baksi said.

Over the last two years, Tech Mahindra has partnered with leading telecom operators in Nigeria, like MTN and Multilinks. The company has recently won the prestigious Bharti Airtel Africa deal for setting up Airtel’s BPO operations in seven countries.

“With its telecom domain expertise and global experience over two decades, Tech Mahindra is committed to offering best in the industry services to telecom operators leading to enhanced experience for the end consumers in Nigeria and the Africa continent as a whole.

Tech Mahindra would bring its global experience across developed and emerging markets to offer top levels of service to operators and end consumers in Nigeria,” Tech Mahindra Vice-President (Sales & Global Alliances) Krishna Gopal said.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/tech-mahindra-to-scale-up-bpo-ops-in-africa-from-nigeria/articleshow/9015184.cms

Mahindra Satyam, a leading global Consulting, IT and Business services provider today announced its consolidated financial results under Indian GAAP for the fourth quarter and year ended March 31st, 2011.

Financial Highlights for the Quarter ended March 31, 2011:

* Consolidated Revenue was INR 1,375 crores, up 7.5% QoQ
* EBITDA before exceptional items was INR 178 crores
* Profit After Tax (before exceptional items) was INR 245 crores, up 118% QoQ
* The extraordinary item pertains to the Class Action settlement reached during quarter
* EPS (before exceptional items) was Rs 2.08 per share in Q4
* PAT (after exceptional items) was INR -327 crores
* EPS (after exceptional items) was Rs -2.78 per share in Q4

Financial Highlights for the year ended March 31, 2011:

* Revenue was INR 5,145 crores, down 6.1% YoY
* EBITDA before exceptional items was INR 455 crores
* PAT (before exceptional items) was INR 494 crores, up 69% YoY
* EPS (before exceptional items) was Rs 4.2 per share For FY11
* PAT (after exceptional items) was INR -147 crores
* EPS (after exceptional items) was Rs -1.25 per share for FY11

Financial Highlights in USD (per Convenience Translation) :

* Fourth Quarter Revenue was USD 304 million, up 7.2% QoQ
* Q4FY11 Operating Profit (EBIDTA before Exceptional items) was at USD 39 million
* Q4FY11 PAT (before exceptional items) was at USD 54 million
* Revenue for full year was USD 1,128 million
* FY11 Operating Profit (before exceptional items) was USD 100 million
* FY11 PAT (before exceptional items) was USD 108 million

Other Highlights

* Our total headcount stood at 29,266 as of March 31, 2011, a net addition of 434 for the quarter and 1,729 for the year
* During the quarter Active Customer count stood at 230
* Attrition down to 22% in Q4 as compared to 25% in Q3FY11

Vineet Nayyar, Chairman, Mahindra Satyam, said, “This year has been a very satisfying one, given the impressive progress we made on various fronts such as minimizing the legal overhang, fortifying governance mechanisms, and restoring customer and employee confidence”. He also added – “Q4 is yet another quarter that demonstrated continuing progress on Growth, operational efficiencies, high delivery standards and investments into capability building.”

Speaking at the occasion, CP Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam, said, “At the end of the second year of our 3-year journey, we are very pleased with our achievements so far. Throughout the last year, we had many high points to cherish; new engagements, new logos, better than ever appreciation for our work and acknowledgement for our capabilities by customers and analysts”.

Looking forward, he adds – “We are acutely aware of the challenges that lie ahead in this transformation journey. Accelerating profitable growth and building capability to deal with the scale are our key focus areas. Our three-axes focus on Verticals, Geographies and Competencies continue, along with two-in-a-box customer centric engagement model would continue.” Key wins Mahindra Satyam continues its growth trajectory with multiple deal wins during this quarter.

* Roche, a global life sciences major headquartered in Europe, partnered with Mahindra Satyam for their IT lifecycle support services
* Qatar University selected Mahindra Satyam for Oracle EBS R12 implementation

In addition Mahindra Satyam announced many key deals during year that include

* Strategic partnership with BASF IT Services to enhance BASF’s capacity to provide managed services for the company’s extensive installed base of SAP, messaging, groupware as well as user administration
* SAP ERP implementation contract by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA)
* Multi-million, multi-year contract from Aspire Zone Foundation, Qatar. The foundation will also utilize Mahindra Satyam’s expertise in event and venue management technologies as part of its ambitious sports event and venue management solution roadmap

Operational Highlights Delivery

* Mahindra Satyam established a Windows Azure Center of Excellence (CoE) in partnership with Microsoft to provide Azure consulting, development and migration services to enterprise customers transitioning towards cloud
* Launched of Delivery xPress – a service delivery framework for accelerated service delivery
* Launched a single-window ‘Art-to-Part’ engagement model for partners in Aerospace and Defence. This partnership model covers both design and manufacturing areas to provide a seamless engagement experience for partners, covering the complete product development lifecycle including after-market services
* Mahindra Satyam BPO announced Partnership with Direct Channel Holdings (Pty) Ltd. Both the companies will exclusively co-operate in unlocking BPO (business process outsourcing) and KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa

Infrastructure

* Mahindra Satyam commenced SEZ operations at Hyderabad, India. The SEZ is spread across 26 acres, will have a built up area of 4,00,000 square feet. The first phase of the campus is now operational and will seat around 5,000 associates
* Mahindra Satyam achieved CMMI Level 5 Version 1.2-Development model certification for its development centres at Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. The assessment led by KPMG as per the SCAMPI methodology evaluated Mahindra Satyam on stringent parameters including implementation of Process Performance Models

New appointments

* Mr. Sriram Papani as Senior VP & Global Head, Enterprise Business Solutions. He re-joins the Mahindra Satyam family to handle some key responsibilities including partner relationship management, fostering leadership within the organization to sustain growth and to incubate and nurture emerging competencies
* Kunihiko Higashi appointed as Country Manager, Japan. In his new role, Kunihiko Higashi will be responsible for spearheading the overall operations, including sales, marketing, professional services and support. He will drive the company’s revenue and market share growth through the implementation of aggressive sales and marketing strategies and building the company’s channel programs in this market
* Mr. Srirama Srinivasan appointed as Vice President – Healthcare & Life Sciences. His core focus areas will be working on growing business in USA and Latin America for Mahindra Satyam. Srirama has 23 years IT industry experience with focus on Sales and Practice Management & Development

References and Recognition

* Mahindra Satyam featured in the ‘Challengers’ category in the report titled “Magic Quadrant for SAP ERP Implementation Service Providers, North America” published by Gartner
* Mahindra Satyam featured in “The Forrester Wave™: Global IT Infrastructure Outsourcing,Q1 2011″.
* Was profiled in a Gartner Research report “Who’s Who in Business Process Management Consulting and System Integration”,
* Zinnov acknowledged Mahindra Satyam as leader in providing automotive engineering services. The practice has been ranked in “Leadership Zone” by Zinnov in their annual Global Service Provider Rating (GSPR) 2010-2011
* Mahindra Satyam BPO honoured as ‘India’s Most Customer Responsive BPO Company’ at the ‘AGC Networks Customer Responsiveness Awards 2010′
* Announced as a Winner in 2010 NOA Awards: ‘BPO Contract of the Year’. Mahindra Satyam wins prestigious industry award in recognition of its BPO work, at 7th Annual NOA Awards Ceremony in Central London
* Won Oracle APAC FY10 OPN Enterprise 2.0 Partner of the Year Award

Source:http://www.auto-mobi.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=171832&Itemid=55

Tech Mahindra, India’s fifth largest software exporter, today announced consolidated financial results for its fourth-quarter and Year ended March 31, 2011. The fourth quarter revenue was at Rs. 1,261.5 crores; up 4.2% QoQ and Full year Revenue was at Rs. 5,140.2 crores; up 11.1% YoY. Tech Mahindra’s Net profit after tax (PAT) before share of profit/loss in associate was at Rs. 206.5 crores, up 0.5% QoQ.

For the Quarter, Tech Mahindra’s associate company Mahindra Satyam reported improved results with operating margins improving from 6.4 % in third quarter of FY11 to 13.0 % in the fourth quarter of FY11. Mahindra Satyam also announced the successful settlement of the US class action suit at a cost of USD 125 mn. Including this exceptional cost Mahindra Satyam reported a loss for the quarter. Tech Mahindra’s PAT including share of associate Company’s loss of Rs. 114.4 crores for the quarter was at Rs. 92.1 crores.

Source:http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Tech-Mahindra-enters-billion-dollar-league/5164355735

Tech Mahindra wins multi-million dollar BPO business in the Philippines, will also expand its footprint in Africa

Tech Mahindra, India’s fifth largest software exporter has announced its plans to set up BPO operations in the Philippines. The company has recently signed a multi-million dollar deal, as one of the preferred BPO partners for strategic outsourcing with a leading full-service telecommunications company in the Philippines, according to a company release. The deal is spread over a period of three years. Tech Mahindra will provide the client with contact centre support for sales and back office, customer care and technical support for their wireless post-paid, landline and broadband customers. The end-customer mix will include both retail as well as high-end business customers of the client. Tech Mahindra has set up the contact centre at Manila to enable and deliver these services to the client and has already recruited over 600 associates locally. The past year saw Tech Mahindra opening centres in Nigeria, Zambia, Malawi, Ghana and Gabon, while Congo DRC and Congo B are expected to start operations within the next few months. According to Sujit Baksi, president-corporate affairs & BPO, Tech Mahindra, “The Philippines is not only a key market for us, but also a strategic location from where we plan to service our global clients. We look forward to strengthening our presence in Philippines through our engagement with one of the leading players in the Philippines telecom industry and will actively support our client’s innovative plans to address the mobile telephony and broadband services market.” At 15:59 hours, Tech Mahindra was trading Rs670.25 (2.5%) down on the BSE. The Sensex was 463.33 points down at 18,534.69 at this time.

Source:http://www.moneylife.in/article/tech-mahindra-starts-bpo-operations-in-the-philippines/16075.html

Mahindra Satyam has selected Appnomic Systems as their technology partner for introducing automation capabilities in its Unified Service Management Platform (USMP). As part of the agreement, Appnomic’s IT process automation solution – OpsOne will now be embedded in USMP which is Mahindra Satyam’s unique managed services platform for delivering IT infrastructure outsourcing services.

USMP is designed for automated, high quality and centralized delivery of IT Infrastructure Outsourcing services. After a detailed evaluation of key features of OpsOne – IT process automation with integrated visual designer, document management, script repository and fine grained SLA reports – Mahindra Satyam found the solution to fit the automation requirements of USMP.The company made this announcement during the trading hours today, 27 April 2011.

Source:http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Mahindra-Satyam-selects-Appnomic-as-technology-partner-for-service-delivery-automation/3666046692

VHA said in a statement: “the five year agreement aims to improve IT operations and deliver efficiencies through the management of Vodafone and 3’s IT systems by one supplier.”
The deal has been a long time coming. In May 2010, just after it had announced the outsourcing of its network operations to Nokia Siemens Networks under a seven-year agreement, VHA said it was in the process of finding an organisation to manage its IT services.

A spokeswoman told ExchangeDaily at the time: “The scope of work for our IT managed services is currently being reviewed. That includes the billing and provisioning and service application. For Hutchison that is all managed by Ericsson. For Vodafone there are multiple partners, including IBM.”

CTO Michael Young, said: “The new partnership will provide us with a single point of accountability for IT systems performance and management. It will also bring greater operational efficiencies and the ability to continuously improve our customers’ experience of our services.”

Tech Mahindra bills itself as “the leading IT services and solutions provider to global telecom operators.” It was formed in 1986 as BT Mahindra, a joint venture between BT and Mahindra and Mahindra. BT has progressively reduced its stake and late last year sold 5.5 percent to Mahindra and Mahindra for $US100m, reducing its stake to 24.5 percent.

In June 2008, Telecom New Zealand signed a contract with Tech Mahindra for delivery of the information systems element of Next Generation Telecom, its plan to deliver new customer relationship management and billing capability using new IP connectivity products.

Source:http://www.itwire.com/it-industry-news/deals/46391-vha-outsources-it-operations-to-tech-mahindra

For the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, net profit narrowed to 233 million ($5.2 million) on sales of 12.42 billion rupees. For the fiscal first quarter ended June 30, its profit stood at 975 million rupees, on revenue of 12.48 billion rupees.

Satyam stunned investors in January 2009 when its former chairman and founder Ramalinga Raju said profits had been overstated and assets falsified in a fraud allegedly worth over $1.5 billion.

Tech Mahindra (TEML.BO), which bought Satyam in April 2009 and is operating it as an independent company, had said in September it can only start the process of merging Satyam into the parent after announcing its quarterly results.

Mahindra Satyam, which once ranked as India’s No. 4 outsourcing firm, in September for the first time unveiled its financials to report a net loss of 1.25 billion rupees for the fiscal year ended March 2010.

For fiscal 2009, it reported a loss of 81.77 billion rupees.

Source:http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKBMA00887920101115

BT Group PLC (BT) is planning to sell a part or all of its stake in Indian software company Tech Mahindra Ltd. (532755.BY) and has mandated Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group (CS) for the deal, two people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

Sale of its 30.9% stake in Tech Mahindra could provide the U.K. telecommunications company with about $663 million cash at current market prices, at a time when it has a huge pension deficit, which has left investors worried, said analysts who didn’t want to be named.

Pune-based Tech Mahindra could lose its status as a preferred outsourcer for BT, its main client, forcing it to compete directly with larger rivals such as Infosys Technologies Ltd. (500209.BY), they added.

Tech Mahindra has lagged peers in its recovery from the financial crisis and is just beginning to show a recovery. However, any stake sale could reduce Tech Mahindra’s dependence on a single client–a point which may please investors, analysts added.

“The firm [BT Group] is looking at various options to exit its current holding of Tech Mahindra,” one of the people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires, without elaborating. Both people didn’t want to be named.

The valuation of the deal will depend on the size of the stake sale and could vary depending on whether the buyers are willing to pay a premium for a strategic stake, the first person added.

At least two private-equity investors are keen to purchase at least a part of BT’s stake in Tech Mahindra, the second person said, but didn’t name the interested buyers.

BT Group spokesman Dan Thomas said the company doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation.

“BT has operations and investments worldwide which we regularly review. India remains a critical market both for BT and our customers,” Thomas said via email.

The U.K. company owns a 30.9% stake in the Indian outsourcing firm, he added. India’s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (500520.BY) holds 42.77% of Tech Mahindra, stock exchange data showed. Tech Mahindra closed 2.1% down at INR768.70 on the Bombay Stock Exchange Wednesday, with a market capitalization of INR96.64 billion.

In May, BT Chief Executive Ian Livingston said: “Owning a minority stake in anything does not mean you have operational control, so we would not see expanding via Tech Mahindra as the way we are going to expand in Asia-Pacific.”

Referring to any stake sale in Tech Mahindra, he said: “We will look at that over time.”

Tech Mahindra spokesman Prasenjit Roy said in response to an emailed query that the company doesn’t comment on market speculation.

“It’s [the Tech Mahindra stake] not really strategically important, they [BT] have a huge pension deficit and investors are worried. They would like to have the cash in their bank account,” said James Crawshaw, analyst at S&P Equity Research in London.

Crawshaw also said the stake sale could be targeted to help sustain the U.K. firm’s dividend.

Another London-based analyst, who asked not to be named, said that if a stake sale occurs, BT will benefit from reduced prices as other Indian IT service providers compete for its business.

Tech Mahindra faces a number of challenges: 43% of its total revenue comes from Europe and 25% from North America, providing greater exposure to fluctuating global markets than its local rivals. Its profits were also affected following a stake buy in fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd. in April 2009 and the company Chief Executive Sanjay Kalra’s unexpected step-down in September.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101027-715478.html

Mahindra Satyam, the brand identity of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., a leading global consulting and IT services provider, today announced that it has been awarded the BPO Contract of the Year at the 7th Annual National Outsourcing Awards (NOA) Ceremony held in central London. Mahindra Satyam received the award, sponsored by NelsonHall, in recognition of its BPO work with one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.

Mahindra Satyam BPO’s relationship with the client is over five years old, and it currently provides high end artwork and design services to the pharmaceutical company. The Regional Service Center (RSC) at Mahindra Satyam BPO provides creative logo, production and promotional graphic artwork services to a global customer base of the client, serving over 120 countries in the customer’s global footprint. The engagement with the client has recently been renewed for an additional period of five years.

The NOA Awards are presented to companies and individuals that have demonstrated best practice in outsourcing. The awards were judged on the basis of organisations’ ability to deliver both initial and ongoing business benefit to the client, incorporating both best practice and ongoing service innovation. John Willmott, NelsonHall CEO, said, “In addition to achieving a very high level of benefits realization for the client, this contract exhibits excellent application of Lean Six Sigma both to improve client service and also to improve employee motivation and retention”.

Speaking about the achievement, Vijay Rangineni, CEO, Mahindra Satyam BPO said, “Our engagement with the client is a perfect example of what a client-service provider partnership should be. Both organisations share a passion and focus towards maintaining excellent quality, engaging proactively with customers, and delivering first time right, every time. Additionally, we share a deep understanding and respect for each other’s cultures, and appreciate the work being put in by Associates across both organisations to achieve the desired objectives.”

Currently, Mahindra Satyam BPO has a dedicated RSC in Hyderabad and manages Design and Artwork Shared Services, Supply Chain Management and Logistics Support. Mahindra Satyam BPO also offers multilingual services to the customer in French, Spanish and Arabic as well as English.

Source:http://www.prlog.org/11026262-mahindra-satyam-announced-as-winner-in-2010-noa-awards-bpo-contract-of-the-year.html