Why is L&T interested in Satyam

I am surprised that L&T is interested in Satyam. Is there another Maytas-like-under-the-carpet story which L&T wants to hide?

We know Raju diverted cash out of Satyam to invest in real estate, we know L&T too has interests in real estate (construction). Is there a link there? Maybe yes, maybe not.

Why it intrigues me is because of the rant by CMD Naik about IT companies a year back where he spewed vitriol (http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1133228) against Indian IT companies, why now the sudden love for one of these, and that too Satyam where there is no knowledge of liabilities involved (I know L&T has been trying to come out with a public offer for L&T Infotech for quite some time now)

See some choice excerpts "But does Infosys have the technology? Can they do what L&T can? Can they build India’s defence, build ships, missilelaunchers, nuclear plants, satellites or radars? No. L&T is one among eight companies in the world who can."

"The least that the politicians can do is stop cutting ribbons in the outsourcing industry. There are more than 75,000 engineers working on design in India for foreign companies. They are the brains, and there are 150,000 other engineers working in the IT industry who are non-computer science engineers. Then the Bangalore Club complains that infrastructure there is cracking. Arrey tumko kisne bola tha 100,000 engineers leke aao Bangalore mein. Secondly, who asked you to recruit civil engineers? There are no civil engineers available to build infrastructure!"

Shrug! Though of course there is this other matter that L&T is right now looking at investment loss of around $100 million due to its Satyam holdings (currently 12% stake in the company). I f this does not lead to a controlling stake, there will be lots to answer to shareholders (actually either way lots to answer). I will still bide my time to get into L&T

On the global front, with the extreme slowdown (when cash rich Microsoft has to layoff people its time to really worry, Bank of America is sub-5$ ouch), expect strong protectionist measures all over, globalization be damned. There will be allout effort to protect/create jobs at the expense of globalization/free markets. This in turn will have its own negative effects everywhere For starters, expect H1B and effectively Indian IT companies to be on the hot spot Meanwhile, I have started directly investing in crude (seen by Oil & Gas jumping to #3 in my list), taking company specific risks out of the equation.


These are my latest holdings (Top 12)