L&T to sell Satyam shares worth $65 mln - TV

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Leading Indian engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro Ltd will raise $65 million by selling one-third of its stake in Mahindra Satyam Ltd on Friday, a television channel said on Thursday.

L&T, which operates in industries as diverse as engineering, shipbuilding and software, will sell 27 million shares in Mahindra Satyam at 112.50 rupees each, CNBC TV18 reported, without citing any sources.

Mumbai-based L&T owns 81 million shares in Mahindra Satyam, the channel said, adding the company had hired Nomura for the share sale.

A spokesman for L&T refused to comment on the report and officials at Nomura could not immediately be reached.

Mahindra Satyam was formerly known as Satyam Computer Services, which was hit by India's biggest corporate fraud at the start of the year.

In April, L&T lost the race for control of the outsourcer to Tech Mahindra Ltd, a unit of India's Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

L&T had built up a 12 percent stake in Satyam, but the expansion of share capital because of the takeover meant it held 6.9 percent in Mahindra Satyam.

At the current share price, the holding is worth nearly 9.51 billion rupees ($204 million).

Under the conditions of the Satyam sale, bidders were barred from selling stakes acquired prior to the bid for six months, as they were given access to financial information that was not public at that time.

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee & Prashant Mehra; Editing by John Mair)