Real estate company Unitech Ltd on Monday posted a 37 per cent year-on-year drop in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 2010 to Rs 111.3 crore.

The net profit for the previous year period was Rs 176 crore.

“The profit during the quarter was adversely impacted by an extraordinary, non-operating loss of Rs 37.59 crore on account of disposal of a capital asset,” a Unitech statement said.

This pertained to sale of an aircraft that the company owned, a senior Unitech official said.

The total income (net sales and income from sale of investments) at Rs 659.7 crore was nearly 15 per cent lower than the year ago period.

“The topline is linked to the pace of construction…During the last two quarters, the company lost one month each on account of labour shortage in the backdrop of Commonwealth Games. But since November 2010, we have ramped up the labour workforce, and going forward there will be a pick-up in activity,” the official said.

Meanwhile, in a statement here, Unitech said that with improved cash flows, the company reduced its real estate net debt by Rs 555 crore during the quarter and the net debt as on December 2010 was Rs 4617.4 crore.

“While the demand and pricing environment for residential product is stable, there has been a marked improvement in the demand for office space. We are working on a wide array of projects to tap into this growing demand,” Mr Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director of Unitech Ltd said in a statement.

During the next three months, the company is planning to launch a number of projects with a total saleable area of about 10 million square feet mostly in mid income and affordable housing segments.

“The company has ample land reserves to meet its business plans. Hence, it has been buying only certain pockets of land within its existing parcels of land mostly in Gurgaon, to improve either the contiguity or shape or both,” the release said.

On Monday, Unitech shares ended up 3.87 per cent at Rs 36.20 on the BSE.

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