Blaming a cartel of bear operators for a single-day plunge of over 51 per cent in its share price, country’s leading realty firm Unitech today said it is seeking a probe by the government and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) into the matter.
The share price of Unitech plummeted by 51.3 per cent to settle at Rs 30.10 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Friday last.
“We are in the process of filing complaints to Sebi, the Department of Economic Affairs and the CBI for probing manipulation in our share price,” Unitech Managing Director Sanjay Chandra told reporters here.
“There are widespread malicious rumours being spread about the financial health of our company in the last couple of weeks, possibly by bear cartels or market operators, who have vested interest in making short-term gains. They are acting with criminal intentions and are doing, in a way, economic terrorism,” Chandra said.
Asked whether any of its rival real estate companies are involved in spreading rumours about Unitech, Chandra said, “I doubt it. Our investigation points to something else... Some brokers are involved. Similar people involved in a leading private bank case.”
Unitech share price plunged following reports that the firm defaulted on payments to the Greater Noida Development Authority for a land deal struck in 2006.
The company’s market capitalisation has declined to Rs 4,800 crore, while its networth at the end of the first quarter was Rs 4,400 crore, he pointed out.
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Chandra said media reports on Friday about the company making a payment default was responsible for the sharp plunge of its share price that day.
“It (rumours) is all baseless,” he said, asserting that the company has not made any default in making payment to the Greater Noida Authority, where it has bagged a 100-acre project.
He further added that the company has made over Rs 2,000 crore payment over the last two years in Noida and Greater Noida for different land deals. “The land in question is the one which the government could not hand over peaceful possession of. The authority has rescheduled payment, so there has been no default by us,” Chandra said.
The Unitech official denied rumours about laying off and a cut in salaries of employees. He clarified that the company has received $175 million from a realty fund managed by Lehman Brothers.
“We have over 25,000 people directly or indirectly working on our various sites. There are 1,700 people working in Unitech Ltd and, as a group, there are about 3,000 people on payroll. We are adding 30-40 people a day with our telecom business,” he said.