Computer services firm Mahindra Satyam is joining hands with Japan’s SBI Holdings Inc to launch a $50 million (Rs 250 crore) fund to invest in information, communications and technology companies globally, the company has disclosed in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange today. Both partners will bring in equal amount for the investment fund while the Japanese partner will manage the fund.

“The funds will be used to help leapfrog the innovation curve by investing in high growth and promising companies in the evolving ICT spaces,” the company commented on the utilisation of the funds.

“With sharp focus on future trends, we intend to go full throttle on investing into emerging spaces such as mobility, social networking, security solutions and Cloud. This fund, managed by SBI Holdings with expertise in this domain, will be an accelerator for growth,” said CP Gurnani, chief executive officer of Mahindra Satyam.

At 2:07 pm, shares of Satyam Computer Services were trading at Rs 74.40 a unit on the BSE, up 0.27 per cent from the previous close.

This comes as yet another external investment by Mahindra Satyam. Earlier this month, Mahindra Satyam Computer Services Ltd (formerly Satyam Computer Services Ltd,) said that it was investing Rs 35 crore ($7 million) in a small public-listed firm called Dion Global Solutions Ltd, which develops software products for capital markets. Dion is majority-owned by Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, promoters of the financial services firm Religare Enterprises and the healthcare firm Fortis.

These two investments came three years after Satyam Computer was hit by an accounting scandal involving its former promoter. Satyam Computer was acquired by the Mahindra Group in 2009.

For the Japanese partner, too, this comes as another move in India within weeks. Only last month, SBI Holdings joined hands with Carlyle-backed Edelweiss Financial Services Ltd to set up a $100 million fund to invest in listed small and mid-cap companies in India.

A few years ago, SBI Holdings had also set up another joint venture fund with SBI Capital Markets Ltd with a commitment of $100 million. The fund targeted $5 million-$10 million investments in technology and life sciences business, and funded risk management and solutions company Aptivaa Consulting. However, the current status of the fund is not known.

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