Unitech puts on hold demerger of infra business

Realty major Unitech on Monday said it has put on hold its plans to demerge the infrastructure vertical indefinitely on account of sluggishness in economy.

In a filing to the BSE, the company said in a meeting of the Restructuring Committee held on Monday it was decided to hold the demerger of infrastructure undertaking of Unitech into a wholly owned subsidiary - Unitech Infra Ltd.

The company also decided to withdraw the amalgamation of two wholly owned subsidiaries - Aditya Properties Pvt Ltd and Unitech Holdings Ltd - with itself, it added.

"Keeping in view the prevailing macroeconomic scenario, the company has decided to put its plans to expand the infrastructure business on hold and focus on its core business of development of residential and commercial real estate...

Accordingly, the company has decided to withdraw the Scheme," Unitech said.

In April 2010, Unitech had announced demerger of its infrastructure operations, including the telecom business, into a new entity to unlock the value of none-core businesses.

It had even planned to eventually list the new demerged entity - Unitech Infra - on stock exchanges.

Unitech had also said that it would hive off the shares and investments held in companies in the telecom sectors to a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unitech Infra.

In the recent months, Unitech and Telenor, joint venture partner in telcom business, have been involved in a public spat over many issues, including management and funding of JV.