Unitech promoters pledge shares

Real estate developer Unitech declared on Monday that the promoters have pledged 49.48% of their total 64.4% in the company. Promoter
holding in the company also fell by at least 3% since the beginning of this year to 64.4%.

Other realty players, including Parsvnath, Omaxe, Sobha Developers and Ansal Properties and Infrastructure (API) too have informed NSE that promoters have pledged shares ranging from 13-64% of their company.

The latest data available on stock exchange confirms market speculation that promoters of realty firms have pledged a large percentage of their stake to financial institutions.

Unitech informed the stock exchange that “a very significant portion of the shares have been pledged as additional security for the loans availed by the company.”

Promoters usually pledge shares as collateral for the secured loans from financial institutions as well as for their personal purposes. Unitech did not declare the name of the financial institutions with which the shares were pledged.

But one Unitech executive suggested that a large portion of shares have been pledged with IDFC, HDFC and JM Financial, although it couldn’t be verified independently.

According to the data made available by Unitech on NSE on Monday, the stake of promoter Ramesh Chandra and family has possibly re-duced by 3% since the beginning of this year. The combined share-holding of Chandra’s three investment firms — Prakausali Invest-ments, Mayfair Investments and Mayfair Capital — are 3% lower compared to the shareholding as on December 31, 2008.

According to market traders, the decline in shareholding could be at-tributed to financial institutions selling pledged shares following a steep decline in share prices.

Delhi-based Parsvnath Developers too has declared that promoters have pledged 63.88% of total shares of the company. The promoters own 80.33% stake in Parsvnath, as of December-end. Delhi-based Omaxe said promoters have pledged 13.19% out of their total 69.63% stake in the company. Ansal Properties and Infrastructure promoters have pledged 29.11% out of 64.14%, mainly to IL&FS and HDFC. The promoters of Bangalore-based Sobha Developers, who own 50.06% in the company, have pledged 28.39% in the company.