Mumbai: Ramesh Chandra promoted Unitech, the second-largest real estate developer in the country, appears set to raise Rs 2,000 crore through a qualified institutional placement (QIP) of shares.
According to sources close to the development, American investment bank UBS and home-grown IDFC-SSKI are the lead arrangers for the QIP.
The exact date of the issue or the institutions could not be confirmed.
Nor could the price, which, said the sources, may happen at Rs 30-35 per share.
The Unitech stock, which has been on an uptrend over the past two weeks on a buzz about the placement, closed at Rs 42.05 per share on Thursday.
The company has a whopping Rs 8,500 crore debt pile to clear.
Contacted, a Unitech spokesperson brushedoff the QIP move as "market rumours".
Notably, Unitech had planned a QIP and even conducted a road show in Mumbai in April last year. However, the attempt failed because the share price was hovering around Rs 650 at that time, whereas the company was seeking Rs 750 per share.
As of Thursday, Unitech promoters held 109.50 crore out of a total of 162 crore shares of the company, amounting to a 67.46% stake.
Thus, if the sale is at Rs 30 per share, promoter holding would fall to 35% post-placement and if it is at Rs 35 per share, the promoters would be left with 41% stake in the company.
A source pointed out that the promoters held only 18% of the company three years ago and had hiked their stake in the last few years. Even so, they were in control of the company at that time, as they do now.


