PACL luxury cars turn on charm

Sebi auction sees good response; Sale value over Rs 30 crore; auction for remaining 17 vehicles soon

The auction of luxury cars of PACL (formerly Pearl Agrotech Corp) began to good response on Tuesday. Though all the vehicles did not find buyers, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) managed a good haul of around Rs 30 crore.

Earlier this month, Sebi had announced that 47 high end vehicles belonging to the company that ran illegal investment schemes would go under the hammer on August 30. The auction process was managed by state-run MSTC India.

Bhanu Kumar, regional manager, MSTC said: "It was an excellent auction. About 109 bidders participated. 30 vehicles have been sold. The total sale value was around Rs 30.5 crore. The remaining 17 vehicles could not meet the reserve price."

Kumar said the remaining vehicles would be taken up in another auction soon. "We are in talks with Sebi. We will take it up as early as possible," She added.

The lifting process of the sold vehicles would begin over the next few days after the successful bidders pay up the price.

The successful bidder shall be intimated and shall be required to deposit 10% of the actual successful sale price as Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) within a period of seven days of lot being declared SOLD. On receipt of EMD, an acceptance Letter is issued and the balance amount including taxes etc. is to be made to MSTC by the buyer in one installment within the next 10 days, the bid document said.

Officials suggested that there could be some changes in the final sale proceeds, if some successful bidders were unable to pay up.

The vehicles are being put on auction by the Sebi under the aegis of Supreme court-appointed committee headed by retired Chief Justice of India R M Lodha. The Lodha committee is supervising the Supreme Court ordered process of selling PACL's assets across the country and refunding Rs 49,100 crore collected from some 56.5 million investors.

Among the vehicles that were put on sale were a Rolls Royce, a Bentley, a Porsche and several other luxury cars and SUVs including Jaguars, BMWs, Audis and Lexus.

While most of the cars were kept in a farm house in Badkhalsa village near Sonipat in Haryana, some of these were kept in Gurgaon and Paschim Vihar.