25 June 2007: Padma Subramaniam, one of the three shareholders of SSL who together have a majority stake in SSL has agreed to sell her holding back to SHCIL. Sources say that the fear of a CBI inquiry has prompted this action. Dr V Subramaniam was a director of SSL and used to be a “standard fixture of all promotion, recruitment and grading interview at SHCIL”, say insiders.
With the acquisition of Subramaniam’s holding and negotiations with Gopika Vishnav – or rather her husband Nilesh Vaishnav - in progress, SHCIL hopes to first get majority control over SSL and marginalize the Singapore investor Andrew Quek who holds shares through a foreign entity called E-Ventures.
We learn that Gopika Vishnav is negotiating to be allowed to retain a part of her holding in SSL. Again, it is not clear why the Ahmedabad based Vaishnavs qualified for such a large stake in SSL and the nature of the deal. It is also unclear how they continue to believe they have any bargaining power. SHCIL sources say that the buyback is being negotiated at par value.
Our sources say that Mr.Andrew Quek of Singapore is also understood to have met Mr.R.K.Bansal along with S.Ramanathan, the CEO of SSL. While details of the meeting are not yet available, Mr.Bansal is reportedly confident that he will wrest back full control over SSL.
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