A new clash among the Patni brothers over the rights of the new capitalist in Patni Computer Systems is delaying the stake sale process in the IT services company. This was one of the major issues keeping back the sale of the Patni brothers’ in the business enterprise, as prospective buyers required management control with clear rights.

Under the existing shareholding system, all three Patni brothers hold up equivalent stakes of about 14%. Ashok and Gajendra Patni are selling part of their stakes, whereas PE firm General Atlantic that owns nearly 16%, is selling its whole stake. The new capitalist taking up their stakes would turn into the separate largest company’s investor.

Accompanying the company’s stake sale, Narendra Patni was supposed to give up managing power and serve as non-executive chairman.

On August 21, the related sources had reported that a new contract was being figured out.

The large structure of the deal was that Narendra Patni, the current chairman and CEO, would keep hold of some of the duties he owns.

But, the new capitalist would have the power to choose a new CEO and also have a say in operable matters and the future expansion plans or policies. However, the procedure seems to have collided with a barrier yet again.

The contract was to be completed this month and Patni Computer was to make a public statement of the intent of its major shareowners to disinvest.

The list of final bidders contained PE firms Blackstone, Carlyle, Apax Partners and Texas Pacific Group, and with the issue of organizational rights having been cleared up, discussions were to be centered primarily on the price. But with the current impasse, sources stated that they still don’t know when the contract would resolve.

Efforts to contact Narendra Patni at his office failed as the calls went unanswered.

Deepak Khosla, the company’s senior vice-president - marketing, stated, “The company has not received any intimation from its major shareholders to disinvest.”