Unitech gains on SEZ lease

Unitech is amongst the big gainers on the BSE today morning. The stock opened at Rs.18.70 and went on to hit an intra day high at Rs.18.95 and currently it is at Rs.18.70, up over 3%.

The stock is up in the green today after it stated that it has inked a lease agreement with Accenture last week.  It has leased 8.1 lakh square feet of space in its under-construction Gurgaon IT SEZ to Accenture, expected to fetch Unitech Rs.1000 crore via rental income over the next fifteen years. The office space has been leased at a monthly rental of over Rs. 60 per sq ft. This is the second big leasing deal which Unitech has signed – last month it had leased 8 lakh sq ft of office space in another SEZ in Gurgaon to US-based consultancy for Aon Hewitt. This lease too is for 15 years and is expected to fetch the company Rs.800 crore. With these leases, the group has leased out 90% of its total leasable areas.

Despite the leases, the group is keen to dispose off its entire stake in the SEZ and there has been news doing the rounds for some time now that it is in talks with PE firm Blackstone and Singapore’s Sovereign wealth fund, GIC. This stake sale is expected to fetch the group around Rs.2700 crore.

This SEZ is owned 60% by its group firm, Unitech Corporate Parks (UCP) and 40% by Unitech. And Unitech directly owns 12% stake in UCP.