Unitech posts Rs 281-cr loss

Income from operations fell to Rs 418 cr in the quarter of the financial year from Rs 1,525 cr in the corresponding period

Unitech posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 281 crore during the quarter ended June 30, as the company booked a capital loss in sale of an information technology park project by overseas group firm. It had a net profit of Rs 5.6 crore in the year-ago period, the developer said.

Income from operations fell to Rs 418 crore in the quarter of the financial year from Rs 1,524.94 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

"The company recorded a total income of Rs 426.34 crore for the quarter ended 30th June 2015. Loss after tax from ordinary activities for the same period stood at Rs 281.29 crore," Unitech said.

"During the quarter, an overseas entity of the group has sold its entire stake in an IT Park developer to Brookfield which resulted in a capital loss of Rs 242 crore and simultaneously another entity of the group acquired shareholding of a SEZ developer from an overseas affiliate of Brookfield," it added.

Consolidated net debt stood at Rs 6,605 crore as of June 30. Net debt to equity ratio was 0.62.

The company achieved sales bookings of 0.23 million sq ft valued at Rs 178 crore during the first quarter of 2015-16 fiscal. It delivered 1.14 million sq ft of completed property during the period under review.

Commenting on the result, Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra said: "We have a strong pipeline of projects under construction and with accelerated construction activity deliveries in the first quarter have gone up substantially."

"We have commenced delivery of finished product in three projects during the quarter. We are further ramping up construction activity at our various sites. Increased pace of construction will also lead to higher cash flows for the company, restarting the virtuous cycle of construction and related cash flows," he added.

In June last year, Unitech Corporate Parks (UCP), the London Stock Exchange-listed firm that owned six IT special economic zones (SEZs) in India, had sold its stake in the projects to Canada's Brookfield Asset Management for about 205.9 million pounds (Rs 2,050 crore).

UCP had formed a 60:40 joint venture with Unitech to develop six SEZs and information technology (IT) parks in Gurgaon, Noida and Kolkata.

Unitech had separately sold its stake in four of the six projects for an undisclosed amount. Brookfield had bought UCP's 60 per cent share in all the six assets and Unitech's 40 per cent in four assets.