No bidding war for Grosvenor House, says Poonawala

Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman, Serum Institute of India, is set to increase his bid for the iconic Grosvenor House hotel property in London to close to $935 million after the present owner Sahara group has put it on the block to meet its liquidity problem. Reclusive Poonawala - with an estimated net worth of $5.3 billion- is bidding for the hotel against a host of other bidders including the royal family of Qatar and Sultan of Brunei. The hotel is up for sale after the Supreme Court of India asked Sahara group to raise Rs 10,000 crore more to secure the release of its chairman Subrata Roy who is incarcerated in the Tihar jail since March this year. Roy is in Jail after Sahara group failed to deposit Rs 20,000 crore with the market regulator, the Sebi as per its earlier order.

Poonawalla - ranked 14th in India's billionaire list by Bloomberg - said he will not get into a bidding war over the hotel. "We will not go down the auction route for Grosvenor House," he said. Apart from London property, Sahara is looking to sell its two properties in New York - The Plaza and Dream Downtown. Poonawalla says he is only interested in the London property and is looking at an all-cash deal for Grosvenor House. As per a report prepared by real estate firm JLL in February this year, Grosvenor House is valued at $876 million, while another real estate analyst firm CBRE valued Plaza at $592 million and Dreams Downtown at $252 million in October last year. Poonawalla is expected to bid upto $935 million - far higher than his previous offer of $800 million.

"We want to diversify into the brick and mortar business and considers real estate as a safe investment with good returns. We are looking at real estate, hospitality assets in India," he told CNBC TV18. Poonawalla made his wealth by setting up world's biggest maker of vaccines and today unlisted Serum Institute provides about a billion doses of vaccines annually. Poonawalla also holds stake in Orchid Chemicals and Panacea Biotec.