Sahara to sell Formula One stake, other properties
NEW DELHI: The Sahara Group on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it would sell its share in a Formula One racing team as well as dispose of properties in several cities to raise funds that it would deposit with the court to ensure the freedom of chairman Subrata Roy. The next date of hearing in the case is in April and Sahara has promised to deposit another large tranche by then.
The court had ordered the group to pay Rs 24,700-odd crore to the Securities and Exchange Board of India to distribute to investors in two Sahara schemes that the regulator had found illegal. Roy was arrested and sent to jail in 2014 after it failed to repay the money which, including interest, has gone up by several thousand crores.
Roy was released on parole last year after two years in jail to attend to the last rites of his mother. The top court has since kept the pressure on Roy and the group to pay back all its dues within a reasonable period or have Roy sent back to jail.
On Tuesday, Sahara counsel Kapil Sibal offered to pay the rest of the arrears in 22 months, as opposed to the 33 months it had previously sought. “The idea is to get money on the table,” he said, seeking six months to dispose of the group’s stake in the Formula One team and sell off properties valued at Rs 6,000 crore. The group has a stake in Sahara Force India F1Team.
The bench, comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and AK Sikri, was reluctant to grant such a long time to the company to raise money. “Why does it take so long to sell off property,” Justice Misra asked. “Why are you not selling?” Sibal said the group had so far sold off 16 properties and deposited Rs 12,000 crore with Sebi. “We couldn’t have deposited Rs 12,000 crore without selling any properties,” he added.
Justice Misra, then, asked the regulator, represented by senior advocate Arvind Datar and standing counsel Pratap Venugopal, to explore the option of auctioning a list of properties handed over by the Sahara Group, but later came around to granting time till April 17 to sell more property and deposit another Rs 5,136 crore. Sahara claimed that it would raise as much as Rs 5,136 crore if it were able to sell all the properties it had listed in a host of cities, but expressed its inability to commit to the amount saying that post-demonetisation the situation in the real estate sector was worse than before.
Another Rs 1,111 crore would come from the Ghaziabad Development Authority.
The court had ordered the group to pay Rs 24,700-odd crore to the Securities and Exchange Board of India to distribute to investors in two Sahara schemes that the regulator had found illegal. Roy was arrested and sent to jail in 2014 after it failed to repay the money which, including interest, has gone up by several thousand crores.
Roy was released on parole last year after two years in jail to attend to the last rites of his mother. The top court has since kept the pressure on Roy and the group to pay back all its dues within a reasonable period or have Roy sent back to jail.
On Tuesday, Sahara counsel Kapil Sibal offered to pay the rest of the arrears in 22 months, as opposed to the 33 months it had previously sought. “The idea is to get money on the table,” he said, seeking six months to dispose of the group’s stake in the Formula One team and sell off properties valued at Rs 6,000 crore. The group has a stake in Sahara Force India F1Team.
The bench, comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and AK Sikri, was reluctant to grant such a long time to the company to raise money. “Why does it take so long to sell off property,” Justice Misra asked. “Why are you not selling?” Sibal said the group had so far sold off 16 properties and deposited Rs 12,000 crore with Sebi. “We couldn’t have deposited Rs 12,000 crore without selling any properties,” he added.
Justice Misra, then, asked the regulator, represented by senior advocate Arvind Datar and standing counsel Pratap Venugopal, to explore the option of auctioning a list of properties handed over by the Sahara Group, but later came around to granting time till April 17 to sell more property and deposit another Rs 5,136 crore. Sahara claimed that it would raise as much as Rs 5,136 crore if it were able to sell all the properties it had listed in a host of cities, but expressed its inability to commit to the amount saying that post-demonetisation the situation in the real estate sector was worse than before.
Another Rs 1,111 crore would come from the Ghaziabad Development Authority.
