Sahara scraps $1.3bn offer for 3 hotels

Mumbai: 3Associates, a London-based family office which invests its wealth in properties, on Tuesday bid $1.3 billion (around Rs 8,700 crore) for three hotels owned by the Sahara Group in New York and London.
But a Sahara spokesperson on Wednesday said the group had rejected the offer. “The said proposal is baseless. It is a devious attempt to benchmark the price much lower than the actual market value of the properties to ruin the market and disturb the sentiments of the actual bidders who are bidding at market value which is much higher.It is a malicious, and non-serious act of some wrong people,” the spokesperson said.
Sahara entirely owns Grosvenor House in London, and has a 70% share in The Plaza and an 85% stake in Dreams Downtown, both in NY. Sahara had earlier said it was negotiating the sale with Qatar Investment Authority, part of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
Property experts described the $1.3 billion bid as a “phenomenal, all equity deal and perhaps the largest one in the global real estate arena.”
Reacting to the Sahara statement, Jesdev Saagar, MD of 3Associates, told TOI from London, that calling the bid “malicious and devious” is ignoring the entire process guided by the Supreme Court. Knight Frank London and Mumbai is representing the bidders.
“We have followed the protocol and guidelines. We do not want to engage in any malicious response. They are welcome to reject the offer. But do they have another offer?” asked Saagar. He said Sahara has no right to “attack us”. “We have offered a compelling bid and placed a large amount of money,” he added.
3Associates founders and its Multi Family office network claims to have completed over £314m (approximately Rs 3,000 crore) of transactions since 2014, including hotels and commercial offices in the UK, UAE and India. It is learnt that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has also been informed about the bid.
Early this month, the Supreme Court extended till August 3 the parole granted to Sahara chief Subrata Roy on humanitarian grounds following the death of his mother, with a strict condition that he will have to deposit the balance of Rs 300 crore, out of the Rs 500 crore promised by him.
The court had said Sahara could sell its properties to raise Rs 5000 crore as a bank guarantee and another Rs 5,000 crore to get bail. Sebi was given the mandate to auction off 60 properties across the country following a directive from the apex court.
Grosvenor House is a luxury hotel in Central London, which opened to the public in 1929.The hotel building was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the renowned architect of New Delhi and following the recent renovation programme, many of the hotel’s original architectural features have been fully restored to their former glory.
Plaza Hotel is a 21-storey landmark building in Midtown Manhattan and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Dreams Downtown Hotel is a boutique, luxury lodging hotel located in downtown area of Manhattan.