Satyam Australia chief quits

THE head of Satyam Computer Services in Australia, Deepak Nangia, has resigned.

Mr Nangia told The Australian he left the company around three weeks ago to pursue other opportunities.

During his seven-year tenure, Mr Nangia built Satyam Australia into a $200 million company, securing blue chip clients such as Telstra, National Australia Bank and Qantas.

However, the actions of Satyam founder and chairman B. Ramalinga Raju, who admitted to over-inflating the value of the company's cash and bank balances by more than $US1 billion ($1.28 billion), has hurt its reputation and bottom line.

A Satyam spokeswoman said Mr Nangia's successor will be named soon.

Like many of his counterparts in other countries Mr Nangia has been battling to retain Satyam's clientele. However some clients, including Telstra and NAB, have either decided to cut all ties or reduce their engagement with the Indian firm.

Satyam's bid to build a $75 million, 10 hectare software facility at Deakin University in Geelong remains in limbo more than a year after it was first trumpeted.

Late last year Mr Nangia said that Satyam employed around 1000 people locally, with an additional 700 workers in India servicing Australian customers.

Despite being acquired by Tech Mahindra, Satyam's finances are still in bad shape, with revenue on a downward spiral.

"Without a doubt, revenue is on a downward trend -- there is definitely stress on the bottom line," Satyam chairman Kiran Karnik said after a board meeting last week.

"We are not looking at mass lay-offs. There is a distinct possibility of where we could do rationalisation manpower, rentals," Mr Karnik said.