Unitech’s recent Dec’08 filing to the BSE suggests promoter shareholding has fallen to 67.5% as at Dec’08 from 74.6% in Sep’08; believe this could be on account of promoter sale or lenders selling promoters pledged shares, no confirmation on the management from this. Further, we believe promoter holding is likely to come down further in the current qtr, as the press (Business Standard) suggests two institutions, SICOM (an NBFC owned by Maharashtra govt) and IFCI have sold 20.32m and 17.5m shares (both aggregating 2.33% of outstanding equity) respectively in Jan’09 – have sold these holdings as promoters failed to repay the loans taken against the pledged shares.
Are Unitech shares facing a Satyam like situation where lenders are unloading to protect their own capital ?