Unitech Group

Unitech Group
Public
Industry Real estate
Founded 1972
Founder Ramesh Chandra
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Key people
 Ramesh Chandra, Executive chairman
Revenue $760 million (2008)[1]
$300 million (2008)[1]
Total assets $3.03 billion (2008)[1]
Number of employees
 1,472 (2011)[2]
Website unitechgroup.com

Unitech Limited is India's second largest real estate investment company,[3] and has recently claimed to be the largest real estate builder in the country.[4][5][5]

The company is based in New Delhi[3] and ranks 1484, in Forbes Global 2000 listing of the top 2000 public companies in the world by Forbes magazine, 32nd in India.[1] Its construction business includes highways, roads, powerhouses, transmission lines, and it has residential projects called Unitech Cities/Uni World, in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata , Chennai, Hyderabad,Mohali, Bangalore, Kochi, Noida,Greater Noida, Agra, Lucknow, Varanasi,Gurgaon, and Ghaziabad.[6]

Past Join Ventures: LG - Unitech Hyundai - Unitech Singapore Consortium - Unitech Carlson (Radission) - Unitech

History

Founded by 5 partners, Ramesh Chandra, Dr. S. P. Shrivastava, Dr. P K Mohanti, Dr. Ramesh Kapur and Dr. Bahri and originally formed as United Technical Consultant Private Ltd in 1972 as a soil investigation company.[7] They later moved into civil engineering contracts in 1974.[8] The company began to enter into real estate in 1986.,[7] and started to increase focus in Real Estate in 2000 today it is India's second-largest listed real estate firm.

Telecommunications

Main article: Uninor

Unitech had formed a large joint venture with Norway-based Telenor Group to create Unitech Wireless Ltd.,[9] in August 2009, it secured a 50 billion rupee ($1 billion) loan from State Bank of India (SBI.BO) to fund its mobile phone network rollout.[10] And after almost 2 years in 2011, due to the 2G-spectrum scam controversy (explained below), the company got involved in a public spat due to which its Chairman Sanjay Chandra allegedly resigned from his position while on bail[11] over Telenor's pressure to do so, followed by news of Unitech's settlement of issues by agreeing to sell its entire stake in the Unitech Wireless to shift the business to a new entity owned by the former almost 1 year later[12] and then Telenor shifted the erstwhile United Wireless' entire assets into a newly formed holding company as its majority-owned subsidiary Telewings Communications Services Pvt. Ltd., another JV which 26% stake was owned by an investment firm named Lakshdeep Investments & Finance Pvt. Ltd. and rest of the 74% owned by Telenor directly, thus sealing the end of Unitech's presence into telecommunications so far, only after 15 days since last development.[13]

Main article: 2G spectrum scam

Unitech Wireless is one of the accused in the 2G spectrum scam.[14] It is alleged that they were able to attain 2G licenses by bribing officials in the Indian Government even though they didn't have any previous telecom experience. As a fallout of this they had a total of 22 licenses cancelled by virtue of a court order,[15] and their Managing Director Sanjay Chandra sent to jail.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Special Report:Forbes Global 2000 Forbes, The Global 2000. 04.02.08
  2. ↑ Company Profile For Unitech Ltd: Unitech Ltd (UNTE.BO) (Bombay Stock Exchange) Reuters.
  3. 1 2 The New Mantra for Reality sector The Economic Times.
  4. ↑ "Three new schemes for Indian property investment developer". Offplanpropertyexchange.com. 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
  5. 1 2 "India Unitech Wireless gets $1 bln loan from SBI". Reuters. 18 August 2009.
  6. ↑ Unitech Group Profile India's Business Directory.
  7. 1 2 Unitech supremo: A reluctant tycoon The Economic Times, 26 Jan 2008.
  8. ↑ "Unitech: Building on a diversified strategy". Financial Express. Entered into Civil Engineering Projects into Libya in 1978, 20 August 2001.
  9. ↑ Cyber India Online Ltd. "Money Matters". Voicendata.ciol.com. Retrieved 2010-11-23.
  10. ↑ "India Unitech Wireless gets $1 bln loan from SBI". Reuters. 18 August 2009. Unitech Ltd (UNTE.BO), India's second-largest listed real estate firm..."
  11. ↑ "Sanjay Chandra quits as Uninor chairman: Sources". NDTV Profit. 26 November 2011. Sanjay Chandra, who is in judicial custody for alleged involvement...
  12. ↑ "Unitech settles disputes with Telenor, to sell stake in Uninor". IBNLive. 11 October 2012. Realty firm Unitech on Thursday said it has amicably settled...
  13. ↑ "Telenor signs Lakshdeep as its new partner". The Hindu. 26 October 2012. After ending its telecom joint venture Uninor with Unitech, Norway’s Telenor...
  14. ↑ "What is 2G scam?". NDTV. 2011-05-05.
  15. ↑ "Cancellation of 2G licenses". The Hindu. 2012-02-02.
  16. ↑ "Accused in 2G Scam". NDTV. 2011-10-22.
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