Sahara comes up with fresh proposal to secure chief's release

Embattled Sahara Group today came up with a fresh proposal before the Supreme Court for the sale of its assets to raise the amount for the release of its jailed chief Subrata Roy.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justices A R Dave and A K Sikri, sought response from the market regulator SEBI within four weeks.
Sahara's counsel and senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the Group was in negotiation to sell its Mumbai hotel -- Sahara Star, company's 42 per cent share in Formula 1 and four aircraft.
Further, the Group said negotiations were underway to sell three overseas hotels, Grosvenor House Hotel in London, the New York Plaza and Dream New York hotels.

The counsel said Grosvenor House Hotel is being negotiated with the State of Qatar which will fetch around Rs 2,300 crore.
Further, the Group has convinced a Russian Bank to re-finance its two hotels in the United States.

Sahara also sought permission to sell its properties in Bangalore.
The group has to arrange Rs 36,000 crore for making the payment in the SEBI-Sahara account for refunding the money to its investors.
For the interim bail of 67-year-old Roy, the court had put conditions like depositing Rs 5,000 crore in cash and a bank guarantee of equal amount and tough terms including payment of the entire Rs 36,000 crore including interest. The money will be paid back to the investors of Sahara.

Meanwhile, the bench also asked SEBI to respond after
properly examining the plea made by Sahara group in its fresh application seeking permission to borrow money from a foreign entity for raising the amount for securing Roy's interim bail.
For the interim bail, the court had put conditions on Roy like depositing Rs 5,000 crore in cash and a bank guarantee of equal amount and tough terms, including payment of the entire Rs 36,000 crore, including interest, to be paid back to the investors.
When Sibal was drawing attention to the fresh plea, the bench asked senior advocate Arvind Datar, who appeared for SEBI, to respond to the application after carrying out a thorough investigation.

"You look into all the aspects with a pinch of salt. We are not convinced with the application. You investigate thoroughly and properly," the bench told Datar.
The bench said it has never restrained Sahara from raising the money.
The group's application had stated that Sahara needed to borrow money from Reuben brothers of United Kingdom for depositing it in the SEBI-Sahara account opened at the apex court's direction for refunding money to investors.
It had earlier informed the court that the loan on overseas hotels that was given by Bank of China has been taken over by billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben of United Kingdom, whose main activities were in real estate, private equity and venture capital.

Roy, on August 26, had offered in Supreme Court to pay an additional Rs 300 crore to SEBI but said the amount should be adjusted as bank guarantee.
On August 3, the court had extended Roy's parole till
September 16 with a condition to deposit Rs 300 crore with SEBI.
Roy's parole, granted on humanitarian grounds following the death of his mother, was extended after he had deposited Rs 300.68 crores, giving him the opportunity to raise the remaining amount to secure bail in the case.
The apex court had allowed Sahara group to go ahead with sale and alienation of their properties to raise an amount of Rs 5,000 crore as a bank guarantee which they have to deposit in addition to Rs 5,000 crore to get bail for Roy.

The Sahara chief had earlier told the court that by December, the group would be in a position to fulfill all the conditions and that talks were going on with Canara Bank for Rs 1,500 crore bank gaurantee.
The apex court had passed an order on March 29 stating that SEBI would not sell any property owned by the beleaguered group for a price less than 90 per cent of the circle rates for the area in question without the permission of the court.
The court had asked SEBI to initiate the process of selling "unencumbered" properties of Sahara group, whose title deeds are with the market regulator, to generate the bail money for release of the group chief.