Tech Mahindra’s bid for Satyam has now received the all-clear from India’s Company Law Board. But investors fear Tech Mahindra is overpaying for the 51 per cent stake: Satyam faces US class action lawsuits and must restate overdue financial results. They should relax. Revenues in the year to March 31 are unlikely to have come in anywhere close to the $2.6bn that founder B. Ramalinga Raju’s fraudulently promised. But as they have been recently running at the rate of $100m, reaching $130m in March, sales should be at least $1.3bn, and perhaps as much as $1.5bn.

Tech Mahindra’s challenge will be to lift Satyam’s abnormally depressed margin of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation back up towards those of industry leaders such as Infosys, in the low 30s.