Satyam Australia nabs IBM exec

INDIAN IT services firm Mahindra Satyam has appointed Bobby Gupta to the newly created role of sales and new business development chief, overseeing Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Gupta, who has worked with IBM in various capacities over the past decade, will be based in Sydney.

His most recent stint with Big Blue was running its Asia-Pacific telecoms expenses management practice from Canberra.

Mr Gupta also spent time in IBM's software and global business services divisions.

"Bobby is a great addition to our team as we continue to increase our focus on emerging technologies and verticals," Satyam's local head Venki Prathivadi said.

"He will help us to further strengthen our capabilities in verticals such as banking, retail, utilities, public services (including government) and healthcare, pharmaceutical and life sciences.”

Snaring new business will be a big challenge for Mr Gupta as Satyam tries hard to leave its recent past behind -- while the company strives to survive a $US1 billion accounting scandal, its local arm is recovering from the fallout over the ditching of a $75 million IT project in Geelong, Victoria.

Satyam has, however, scored some significant wins overseas, including a three-year, multimillion-dollar contract extension with GE.

Its majority shareholder, Tech Mahindra, this week reported a 44 per cent drop in second-quarter net profit to 1.69 billion rupees ($40m), mainly due to interest costs on borrowings to fund its acquisition of Satyam.

Revenues fell 2 per cent to 11.4bn rupees but the results didn't include the financial performance of Satyam, which is still in the midst of restating its global accounts following the fraud saga that erupted in India in January.

In contrast, rival Tata Consultancy Services registered a 29 per cent rise in second quarter profit to 16.24bn rupees compared with 12.62bn rupees a year earlier.

TCS's revenue was up 6.9 per cent to 74.35bn rupees over the same period last year.