Unitech net profit falls 22% in Q4

Unitech Ltd, the country’s second-largest property developer, reported a decline of 22 per cent in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 31 to Rs 279.7 crore, compared with Rs 360.2 crore for the corresponding period last year. Net profit for the full year 2008-09 also fell 28 per cent at Rs 1,197.7 crore, compared with Rs 1,661.9 crore for the corresponding period last year. Revenue for the year came down 23 per cent, to Rs 3315.6 crore, as compared with Rs 4,280.1 crore for the corresponding period last year.

The performance has been better than market expectations, as well as its peer group. This is largely due to sharp increase in other income, which came from its telecom joint venture. In the quarter ending March, its other income was Rs 421 crore, as against Rs 94 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. “The increase in other income is primarily due to interest acrued from investment made in the telecom joint venture, and the fees charged on rendering services from the telecom business,” said a company official.

Unitech expects to book around 20 million sq ft of residential space in the current financial year. The company, along with its rival developer DLF, is focusing on mid-income housing projects priced at Rs 15-50 lakh per unit.The managing director of Unitech, Sanjay Chandra, had said the comapany had booked nearly 4,000 housing units in the first two and a half months of FY10. The company plans to launch 40 mid-income housing projects in the current fiscal.

It has raised nearly Rs 1,000 crore since April by selling its non-core assets, including hotels and office space. The company’s asset selling will fetch Rs 1,600 crore in the fiscal ending March 31,2010.

Unitech’s promoters raised Rs 1,625 crore in April from the sale of shares to qualified institutional investors. The promoters will infuse Rs 1,150 crore in the company by subscribing to convertible warrants.