Unitech reschedules over 75% of debt

Realty major Unitech today said it has rescheduled more than three-fourths of its total debt amounting to Rs 8,000 crore to tackle the slump in the real estate sector and hoped that the company would soon have sufficient liquidity to look at other opportunities.

"We have been able to reschedule over 75 per cent of our commitments," Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra told reporters here today.

Asked whether the company has fulfilled 75 per cent of the short-term commitments, he said: "No, overall." The overall debt of the company is Rs 8,000 crore, he added.

Chandra said the company has restructured a lot of short-term debts into long-term ones. "We will shortly be in a position, where we will hopefully be having a lot of liquidity to look at other opportunities and initiatives," he said.

Chandra had said on January 19 that Unitech has repaid or rescheduled about three-fourths of the company's debts worth Rs 2,500 crore to be paid by March 2009.

When asked about the sale of Gurgaon hotel and office building in the national capital, Chandra said the deals are expected to close by the end of this quarter.

Unitech posted a 74 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 136 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2008 against Rs 525.78 crore in the year-ago period.