Mahindra Satyam faces NYSE ire over late filing

Mahindra Satyam, the post-acquisition avatar of scam-hit Satyam Computer Services, has initiated talks with the NYSE after New York Stock Exchange Regulation Inc wrote to the company stating that it would be included in the 'late filers' list on 22 October.

The announcement follows Satyam's failure to file its annual report with the US market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission, by 15 October. The bourse cautioned that it reserves the right to delist the IT firm if circumstances warrant.

In India, the Company Law Board has now set 30 June 2010 as the deadline for Mahindra Satyam to file its re-stated accounts. ''We have communicated the CLB's decision to NYSE,'' Mahindra Satyam company secretary G Jayaraman said.

Global audit firm KPMG started restating Satyam's accounts after its founder B Ramalinga Raju admitted to fudging the books for several years to perpetrate a Rs7,000 crore fraud – the biggest in India's corporate history (See: Re-audited Satyam accounts by December end).

In a communication to Mahindra Satyam, the NYSE said that it will closely monitor the status of the company's late filing and related public disclosures for an initial six-month period. The NYSE may at its sole discretion allow the company's shares to trade till 2010, said the letter, with the caution on de-listing.

The NYSE also warned that an 'LF' indicator would be appended to the company's trading symbol and profile, date and news pages provided by the Exchange, Satyam announced in a filing to the BSE and NSE on Tuesday. But ''NYSE's communication is only a technical and procedural formality,'' said a senior Mahindra Satyam official.