The liquidity position of the cash-strapped realtor United Ltd is expected to improve, with the company recently raising Rs 1,625 crore at Rs 38.50 per share through qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue. The proceeds from this sale of new shares to qualified institutions will help the country's second-biggest real estate developer repay a part of its more than Rs 8,900-crore debt.

According to a Unitech official, the new-shares issue was subscribed more than two times. While over 90 percent of the shares were bought by overseas investors, the remaining shares were bought by the domestic investors. The key foreign institutional investors subscribing to the issue included HSBC Asset Management, GIC, Oriental Capital, Prudential Asset management, Sandstone Capital, and Och Ziff.

With the newly-raised amount, Unitech expected to make the repayment of its Rs 500-crore debt to mutual funds, which is due by Sunday.

The official said that there has been a 13 percent post-issue dilution in the promoters' stake in Unitech. After the QIP issue, the stake of the promoters fell to 51 percent from 64 percent. Furthermore, the company also intends issuing 420 million new shares, with the equity being projected to rise to 2.02 billion shares.

About Unitech's future plans, a top company official said: "Unitech continues to remain focused on cash-flow management, with a well-defined plan to pursue selective asset sales and repay debt."