Unitech to list demerged infra entity on stock exchanges

Seeking to leverage from its demerged infrastructure businesses, including telecom venture, Unitech today said it would list the new entity on the stock exchanges within 2010. The country's second largest realty firm also said that the demerged entity, Unitech Infra, is estimated to have a high initial net worth of nearly Rs 5,000 crore and a very low debt of Rs 350 crore. The order book is about Rs 2,700 crore. "We will list Unitech Infra before the end of this calendar year," Unitech Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra told PTI. The new entity would be listed on both NSE and BSE. Unitech's board, yesterday, approved the demerger of infrastructure businesses of the company, including investments in telecom, hotels, amusement parks and SEZs, into a separate entity. The swap ratio was fixed at 1:1. "Our shareholders will benefit not only from unlocking of value of the infrastructure businesses embedded within Unitech but also from the future value creation of Unitech Infra," he said while describing the objective behind the demerger. Asked about the valuation of the new company, Chandra said it would be decided by the market force. Post-demerger, he said Unitech will hold 35 per cent stake in Unitech Infra, while Unitech promoters would have 32 per cent share and the remaining will be with the public. Chandra said the new company would bid for infrastructure projects in highways, power transmission and airport sectors. It also intends to generate and distribute captive power for existing and the future projects of Unitech. "We have the experience of building highways and airports before. But in the last few years, we were focusing on real estate operation," he added. Chandra said there is no immediate plan to raise funds for execution of order book of Unitech Infra, but said the new company has adequate leverage capacity because of low debt. Unitech Infra development portfolio includes 11 hotels comprising 2,100 rooms, five IT SEZs and one IT park with 21.4 million sq ft of space, three amusement parks, two industrial parks and one logistic park in Kolkata. Chandra said the company would maintain its strategy to develop and sell hotels. For the nine month ended ended December 31, 2009, combined revenue of Unitech's infrastructure businesses was Rs 326.7 crore and profit after tax was Rs 56.5 crore.