Unitech net jumps 105% to Rs 280 cr

Unitech net jumps 105% to Rs 280 cr
The Economic Times, June 26, 2009, Page 15

Our Bureau NEW DELHI

REAL estate company Unitech has posted a 105% jump in net profit at Rs 280 crore and a 48% rise in net sales at Rs 752 crore for the fourth quarter ended March ‘09 supplemented by other income of Rs 300 crore. This other income was generated from the company’s joint ventures in real estate and telecom sectors.

It includes interest accrued on the capital deployed in the real estate JV and the telecom venture Unitech Wireless, besides the services provided by Unitech to its telecom joint venture, Unitech head of corporate planning R Nagraju said.

The services to Unitech Wireless comprised providing manpower as Telenor had still not hired people. Unitech had also lent around Rs 900 crore as debt to Unitech Wireless, 64% owned by Norway’s Telenor. Following the infusion of equity by Telenor, Unitech Wireless has repaid Rs 400 crore to Unitech.

Unitech, which for months had been struggling to repay debt, now says it’s comfortably placed to honour its commitments to service debt, following fund raising through a qualified institutional placement(QIP) and increased sale of mid and low income homes.

Unitech has used Rs 700 crore of the total Rs 1,680 crore raised through the QIP to repay debt. Rest of the funds are being deployed in projects, Mr Nagraju said. He said Rs 1,000 crore would be due for repayment in the next nine months. The company claimed to have sold around 3,000 mid-income houses in the past four months and stated that if the demand continue like this, it will generate surplus cash this fiscal.