Real estate major, Unitech Ltd is getting ready to offload stakes in its hospitality as well as realty projects to raise some much-needed cash.
Unitech's corporate office in South of Delhi is up for sale as the five storied building offers almost 240,000 square feet of space, which is sure to fetch one of India's biggest realty developers upwards of Rs 500 crore.
Delhi-based industrialist Arvind Dham, chairman and MD of Amtek Auto, has made an offer for Rs 502 crore for the building while JSPL, and HDFC are also eyeing the property.
Meanwhile, Unitech is weighing the option of selling the property to 3 or 4 different investors where each investor will be sold a floor, netting Unitech almost Rs 560 crore.
But that's not all, as Unitech's yet to be completed hotel project in Gurgaon is also on the block. It is believed that D S group of Rajnigandha fame is set to bag this property. DS group is paying Rs 261 crore for the 200-room hotel and it will be an all cash deal.
Unitech is putting many of its prestigious projects on sale because it needs to raise money to pay off debts.
But in contrast, the slump in the real estate sector means that getting good valuations will be tough, but if Unitech can get these deals off the ground, it may end up raising more than Rs 1000 crore to pay off almost half of its debt due this year.
But not just these outright sales, Unitech is also looking to sell stakes in individual projects in the housing sector and has identified projects in Gurgaon, Mohali, Hyderabad and Vishkhapatnam. For this purpose, the company will be divesting about 40 per cent stake raising up to Rs 200 crore per project.
With companies like Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) managing to raise more than $890 million for their real estate fund, Unitech may just manage to get the much needed funding.