Sahara raises additional $650 million to pay chairman Subrata Roy's Rs 10,000-crore bail

NEW DELHI: The Sahara group on Friday told the Supreme Court it had managed to raise an additional $650 million that would help pay the Rs 10,000 crore bail set for the release of chairman Subrata Roy from Tihar jail. It has done so through second mortgages on its three hotels abroad.

This would amount to Rs 3,070 crore net of all transaction costs, Sahara told a three-judge bench comprising justices TS Thakur, Anil R Dave and AK Sikri.

The bench said that it would wait until Tuesday for the amount to be transferred by the lender to an escrow account of the US-based Nationwide Title Co before giving its approval for the deal. The case will come up for hearing again on that day. The bench also asked the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), through counsel Pratap Venugopal, to state its objections to these proposals by that day.

The bench will then examine if it should approve the deal or appoint any other asset management company to sell off Sahara’s assets to recover the money due from the group. Sebi was also asked to suggest names of such asset management companies.

Sahara said it had signed a master agreement with a company incorporated in Hong Kong known as Oasis Light Ltd, which is connected with a Brunei sovereign fund, but this fell through because of an adverse public reaction overseas over the Southeast Asian country’s anti-gay laws. All the other offers came at low prices or were from people with no financial standing, the company said.

But Oasis had come round to purchasing the rights of Bank of China as the first lender and thereafter would change the terms of the loans, a fresh application filed by Sahara said. The loan will only get costlier, Sahara pointed out.

“Consequently, it is anticipated that the three foreign hotel properties will be subject to charges for an aggregate amount which will be more than the amounts secured by existing charges created in favour of Bank of China,” Sahara said.


But it had managed on the basis of the second mortgage to secure a junior loan of $650 million by securing Sahara’s interests in the foreign hotel properties.

In the fresh proposal submitted to the top court, Sahara also said it had managed to execute agreements to sell three of its India properties in Jodhpur, Chauma, Gurgaon, and Vasai, Mumbai.

The group offered to pay to market regulator Sebi Rs 186 crore received by way of down payment for these sales. This would generate an additional Rs 3,721 crore. The group also offered another Rs 227 crore owed by the National Spot Exchange. The offer was made by Sahara counsel S Ganesh.