(By Anthony Miller – Wednesday, 8th April 2009 8:30am). With the finishing post now in sight – apparently next Monday is when the winner will cross the line – there is still confusion as to who the riders actually are in the industry’s most speculated race, the Satyam Stakes (see Satyam Stakes – Runners and Riders).Latest media reports tag billionaire investor, Wilbur Ross, as the financial backer behind Larsen & Toubro’s bid to take control of the beleaguered Hyderabad-based SI. L&T already hold 12% of Satyam’s stock. However, both Tech Mahindra and Cognizant are also tipped as hot favourites. Tech Mahindra, 31% owned by BT, gets nearly 70% of its $1bn revenues (~£700m) from the UK market, nearly 60% of which comes from BT itself. This almost certainly makes it a UK Top 20 player even without Satyam. Cognizant’s UK revenues last year were around £220m (subscribers can see more in OffshoreViews) which, with Satyam UK around half that, would get them pretty close to the Top 20 too. Who’s going to stumble at the last hurdle, I wonder?
Meanwhile, Satyam’s previous 'owner' B. Ramalinga Raju, and his cohorts were formally indicted yesterday on race-fixing charges, along with a couple of racecourse officials. It’s not known if Raju has put a sly bet on the outcome of the Satyam Stakes from his less than opulent temporary stables, but it's unlikely he would be permitted to collect any winnings.
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