Supreme Court Allows Sahara Group To Raise $424 Million By Selling 4 Properties In India

In a bid to raise Rs 26.22 billion ($424 million) to secure Sahara chief Subrata Roy’s bail, the Indian conglomerate would be selling four of its domestic properties located in Vasai, Jodhpur, Pune and Chauma (Gurgaon). The Supreme Court’s given the group permission to sell its domestic properties yesterday, after hearing the arguments from the Sahara group counsels.

The news brings in a big relief to the Sahara group, who was trying really hard to gather the required deposits and securities needed for Subroto Roy’s bail.

The Sahara chief has been lodged in Tihar Jail since March 24 for not complying with the apex court's August 31, 2012 directions to return an amount of Rs 24,000 crore to its 3 crore investors with interest.

The apex court has ordered Sahara Group to deposit Rs 10,000 crore to get bail, out of which Rs 5,000 crore should be paid in cash and rest of the amount could be paid in form of a bank guarantee.

Sahara Group, which owns iconic hotels like the Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House located in London, had already told the Supreme Court that it would mortgage or sell its overseas hotels to raise funds to secure bail.

The conglomerate, last week, also sought the Supreme Court’s permission to take over a loan from Bank of China against its international hotel properties. It has also asked the apex court to grant permission to raise $650 million more in loans through refinancing to pay off the bail money. The court may come up with a decision on the same in the next hearing scheduled for December 17.