Satyam Narrows Losses
Author: Kenan Machado, Romit Guha; Satish Sarangaraja</br></br>HYDERABAD -- Satyam Computer Services Ltd., which is recovering from India's biggest-ever corporate scandal, said Wednesday its net loss for the fiscal year ended March 31 narrowed to 1.25 billion rupees ($27.8 million) from 81.77 billion rupees a year earlier, as the company's one-time costs fell sharply while it reduced staff and administrative expenses.</br></br>Satyam Computer hadn't reported results since the July-September quarter of 2008, as in January 2009 it was plunged into turmoil after its founder and then chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, confessed to overstating profits for years, using a fictitious cash balance of more than $1 billion.</br></br>The Hyderabad-based company was taken over by software company Tech Mahindra Ltd. following a government auction in April 2009 and re-branded Mahindra Satyam, though it is still listed as Satyam Computer Services.</br></br>Satyam said Wednesday it posted revenue of 54.81 billion rupees last fiscal year, down from 88.13 billion rupees the previous year, but in line with expectations. The average view in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of five analysts was for revenue of 54.74 billion rupees. The analysts' net profit estimates ranged from 1.80 billion rupees to 6.57 billion rupees.