STATE FARM CANCELS SATYAM CONTRACT

Illinois-based insurer State Farm has ended its contract with troubled Indian outsourcing firm Satyam, according to a report in locally based LiveMint . Satyam is looking for emergency loans to help a cash crisis at the company, with the Economic Times reporting that Citigroup and BNP Paribas had been approached for funds. Meanwhile, a New York Times report at the weekend cited a senior official involved into the inquiry, stating that as much as $1bn might have been siphoned off. Early this year then chairman Ramalinga Raju claimed that he had padded the profits to please investors and that neither he nor his brother B Rama Raju, with whom he founded the company, had taken one rupee from the company. Investigations now relate to a raft of about 300 companies related to Raju and to Satyam, the NYT report said.