Aamby Valley auction starts with ~37k-cr base price
A Supreme Court-ordered auction process has begun for the embattled Sahara group’s luxurious Aamby Valley resort town, with the official liquidator inviting bids at a reserve price of ~37,392 crore. The auction process has been initiated even after a Mauritius-based investor, Royale Partners Investment Fund, said last week that it had offered to invest $1.67 billion (over ~10,700 crore) in the project.
A Supreme Court-ordered auction process has begun for the embattled Sahara group’s luxurious Aamby Valley resort town, with the official liquidator inviting bids at a reserve price of ~37,392 crore.
The auction process has been initiated even after a Mauritius-based investor, Royale Partners Investment Fund, said last week that it has offered to invest $1.67 billion (over ~10,700 crore) in the project.
The official liquidator of the Bombay High Court published an auction notice on Monday, inviting prospective bidders for the integrated hill city township spread over 6,762 acres near Lonavala in Pune district, as also two land parcels measuring over 1,700 acre. The Sahara group had earlier pegged the market valuation of this project at over ~1 lakh crore.
Last week, the Supreme Court had said the auction process can start on August 14 (Monday), as scheduled. However, it also said it would deliberate upon the group’s plea — seeking 18 more months for making complete repayment — if it deposited ~1,500 crore into the SebiSahara refund account by September 7, as promised. The group had asked the court to postpone the auction till September 16 to enable Sahara group chief Subrata Roy to arrange the money. Monday's auction notice said the prospective bidders need to submit KYC (know your customer) forms and, on qualification, they would have to invite bids along with 15 per cent of the reserve price as earnest money.
The liquidator said the properties would be sold under two distinct phases over a period of two days, as an alternate to each other, "given the quantum of the properties to be sold".
About the resort town, the liquidator said: "The ultraexclusive chartered city has residential options ranging from the Timber Chalets to fabulously modern and customised villas in distinct architectural styles and several amenities such as golf course, airport, hospital, adventure sports, retail, entertainment, international school and hospitality." It also said the properties being auctioned would be sold/leased along with all subsisting licences, consents, registrations, approvals, grants and pending applications (as applicable) in line with the Supreme Court order of July 25, 2017. Sahara had moved an application before the Supreme Court seeking permission for entering into an agreement with Victor Koenig UK Limited, with the nominee Royale Partners Investment Fund Limited, for inviting an investment of $1.67 billion into its Aamby Valley project.