The Indian Enron Satyam

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The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Business and Economics BUSI 3011A Corporate Governance & Social Responsibility The Indian Enron: Corporate Governance Failure at Satyam Chan Bonnie See Wa 2008404214 Chan Yun Man, Winston 2008053003 Shi Xinyu, Shyvee 2008502573 Yin Yuxi, Philip 2008801905 The Indian Enron: Corporate Governance Failure at Satyam Introduction Known as the “Indian Enron”, Satyam, the fourth-largest computer services company in India, had been feeding its stakeholders a continual diet of frauds. The Satyam scandal marks as one of the biggest governance failures in India’s corporate history. This essay provides an analysis of this “India’s Enron”. The essay starts introducing how the fraud first appeared. It explains what went wrong by examining three levels of analysis, i.e. firm, market, and institution, and uncovering the roles that various parties played in the fraud. It further talks about the scandal’s impact on “Brand India” and its aftermath. The paper ends with a discussion on the key takeaways various parties could obtain from the case. Fraud Uncovered As stock markets worldwide collapsed during 2008, the Indian Stock Exchange, the Sensex, did not escape from this fate. It fell from a high of 21,000 to below 8,000 in ten months, between January and October, 2008. Warren Buffet was right in saying that “it is only when the tide goes out that you realize who has been swimming naked.” The drop of the real estate prices turned Raju’s realty dream sour. On December 16 2008, Raju claimed to purchase the Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties, two companies held by Raju’s family and unrelated to the IT field, for $1.6 billion. The deal was unanimously approved by the Board of Directors at Satyam. Raju insisted that the acquisition would pave the way for accelerated growth and provide Satyam with greater

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