Unitech Ltd is a real estate company in the middle of a court-ordered rescue, not a typical property developer - it was taken over by a government-appointed board in 2020 after its original promoters were jailed and thousands of homebuyers were left stranded with unfinished apartments. Founded in 1971, the company once built homes across India but collapsed under financial strain and alleged mismanagement around 2013-14, and its entire operation now runs under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court of India with a single overriding mission: finish what was promised. Everything it does - from floating construction tenders to collecting dues from buyers - is shaped by that court-mandated turnaround, where the new management acts as a custodian rather than an entrepreneur.
Business segments
Three engines at different stages - a stalled development pipeline being restarted under court supervision, a facility-management arm that keeps the existing properties running, and a small hospitality side business - all feeding cash back into completing homes.
1. Real estate development: the unfinished portfolio the court is trying to complete
The company is not launching new projects; it is racing to finish 84 stalled residential and commercial projects and deliver homes to more than 17,000 buyers, using a tendering process overseen by a retired Supreme Court judge.
- A portfolio of broken promises - the company has ongoing projects across 7 states at 11 locations, with more than 16,500 homebuyers waiting for their units; as of March 2025, possession had been offered to only 407 of them.
- Every tender needs a judge's nod - construction contracts are floated in lots and must be approved by Justice (Retd.) A. M. Sapre, appointed by the Supreme Court to watch over every stage of the tendering process, before the Board can award them. Five tender lots have been issued since January 2023, but contractor interest has been weak - 18 of the first 35 tenders got no bids at all.
- Buyers fund their own rescue - the money to complete construction comes from two sources: the outstanding instalments still owed by homebuyers, and the sale of unsold apartments and commercial space in the same projects. There is no outside bailout.
- Safety first, then delivery - before handing over keys, the company had structural audits done on 179 buildings and 13 basements across 27 projects by IIT Roorkee, IIT Madras, and Jadavpur University; the buildings were found largely safe but need retrofitting, and contracts for 25 of the 28 retrofitting tenders floated with Lot-3 have been awarded.
- Revenue recognised cautiously - the company books revenue on the percentage-of-completion method, but only after hitting strict thresholds: all critical approvals in hand, at least 25% of construction costs spent, a quarter of the saleable area under contract, and 10% of the contracted revenue actually received. If a project's total costs look set to exceed its revenue, the expected loss is recognised immediately.
2. Property management: the steady fee engine that keeps the lights on
Through its subsidiary QnS Facility Management, the company collects recurring fees for maintaining the common areas and infrastructure of the Unitech group's developed properties - a service business that generates cash without selling any land.
- Fee-based, not asset-heavy - the business manages and maintains properties the group has already built, earning management fees rather than depending on new sales; it contributed roughly two-fifths of consolidated turnover in FY25.
- Lean workforce, wide reach - the entire company had only 206 employees (including contract staff) as of March 2025, serving 84 projects across 11 locations from just 6 offices. The property management engine runs on a small permanent team supplemented by contractual workers.
- Anchored to the parent's portfolio - the management contracts are tied to Unitech's own developments, so the engine's health depends on those properties remaining occupied and operational while the parent works through its completion backlog.
3. Hospitality: a small banquet and restaurant side business
Run through subsidiaries like Elixir Hospitality Management, this engine operates restaurants and banquet facilities that contribute a minor but distinct revenue stream.
- Banquets and dining - the business contributed less than a tenth of consolidated turnover in FY25, serving event and dining customers through subsidiary companies that also include hotel and country-club entities.
- Tangled legacy investments - some hospitality-linked investments, such as those in Carnoustie Management, are under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate and subject to attachment orders; the company has gone to the Supreme Court seeking recovery of those funds.
Group structure and partners
The company is a web of over 200 subsidiaries, most of them project-specific shells, controlled by a government-appointed board that answers to the Supreme Court - not to any promoter.
- A subsidiary for every project - as of FY25, Unitech had 185 Indian subsidiaries (171 wholly owned) and 32 foreign subsidiaries, plus 3 foreign joint ventures; many are named after specific cities or projects, such as Unitech Agra Hi-Tech Township Ltd and Unitech Kochi-SEZ Ltd. Eight subsidiaries that had been struck off by the Registrar of Companies have been ordered revived by the NCLT.
- The board are nominees, not owners - all five directors, including Chairman and Managing Director Yudhvir Singh Malik (a retired IAS officer), were appointed by the Central Government with Supreme Court approval; they receive no remuneration except sitting fees, and the CMD's pay is set by the government. The original promoters remain classified as promoters despite requesting reclassification, because of ongoing investigations, personal guarantees to lenders, and pending litigation.
- A non-bank lender sits inside the group - Unitech Holdings Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary registered with the RBI as an NBFC since 2003, holding what the company calls Strategically Important Assets, though it reported no turnover for FY2023-24.
- Power transmission sold for cash - in March 2025, the company sold its subsidiary Unitech Power Transmission Limited to Auro Infra Private Limited for Rs 50.89 crore on an "as-is-where-is" basis, with the Supreme Court's approval, and received the full amount immediately.
- Legacy debt lingers - a vendors' bill discounting facility from IDBI Bank, taken during the erstwhile management's tenure and converted to a term loan in 2016, had ballooned to nearly Rs 938 crore payable as of March 2022.