Sahara’s Aamby Valley property
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the official liquidator of the Bombay high court to auction Aamby Valley City, Sahara Group’s flagship property in Maharashtra, to recover the money it owes investors.
The apex court also directed Sahara India chief Subrata Roy to personally appear before the court at the next hearing in the case on 27 April.
“Verify, make an evaluation and proceed with sale,” the court said in a directive to the official liquidator of the Bombay high court.
Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi and A.K. Sikri directed the auction of Aamby Valley, located in Pune district, after Sahara failed to deposit Rs5,092.64 crore with the capital markets regula- Securities and Exchange Board of India. It owes the money to investors who purchased securities sold by two group companies through schemes that Sebi ruled were illegal.
Aamby Valley is Sahara’s flagship project, consisting of luxury resorts, man-made lakes and an airport. It is spread over 4,000 hectares. In January 2012, Sahara valued the property at ₹34,000 crore.
“The market valuation of Aamby Valley is over ₹1 lakh crore so auctioning under distress will be an undue benefit for any bidder,” Sahara said in a statement on Monday.
“The property...would be saletor able only if it is sold in... 50-100 acre parcels instead of trying to sell it to a single buyer,” said a top executive at a property advisory on condition of anonymity.
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, who appeared for Sahara, said the sale of three overseas hotels owned by Sahara Group—two in downtown New York and the plush Grosvenor House in London—will be finalised by 28 May.
The court also imposed costs of ₹10 crore on MG Capital Holdings, a US-based real estate company that had moved the apex court seeking to buy Sahara’s stake in the overseas hotels.
The US company failed to heed a previous court directive to deposit ₹750 crore as earnest money in Sebi’s dedicated Sahara account.