This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

Reprieve For Sahara: Supreme Court Grants Three More Months To Raise Cash For Subrata Roy's Bail

Sahara's Endgame Postponed As Supreme Court Gives Three More Months To Raise Bail For Roy
NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 4: Sahara Chairman Subrata Roy arrives at the Supreme Court on March 4, 2014 in New Delhi, India. An attacker, Manoj Sharma, claiming to be a lawyer from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh managed to get close to Roy in the crowd and threw black ink on him. He was later detained and led away. Subrata Roy, head of the Sahara India conglomerate was accused by Indiaâs regulatory body SEBI of raising nearly 200 billion rupees ($3.2 billion) through bonds that were later found to be illegal. (Photo by Arun Sharma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
NEW DELHI, INDIA - MARCH 4: Sahara Chairman Subrata Roy arrives at the Supreme Court on March 4, 2014 in New Delhi, India. An attacker, Manoj Sharma, claiming to be a lawyer from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh managed to get close to Roy in the crowd and threw black ink on him. He was later detained and led away. Subrata Roy, head of the Sahara India conglomerate was accused by Indiaâs regulatory body SEBI of raising nearly 200 billion rupees ($3.2 billion) through bonds that were later found to be illegal. (Photo by Arun Sharma/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

MUMBAI — Sahara got a crucial reprieve today when the Supreme Court decided to give the conglomerate another three months to arrive at a final proposal to raise funds against its assets and secure bail for its founder Subrata Roy, who has been in jail for more than a year.

The Supreme Court could have decided to appoint a receiver to auction Sahara's assets, which would have been the endgame for the company. Sahara needs to raise $1.6 billion to secure bail for Roy, and has made several attempts, all of which have failed. Roy was jailed last year after he did not comply with a court order to refund billions of dollars to investors in an illegal bond scheme.

The court today allowed Sahara to sell part of its sprawling Aamby Valley township outside Mumbai, which has luxury villas and a golf course. The sale will help the group raise funds for Roy's bail.

The Supreme Court last week gave Sahara, a sprawling conglomerate that ranges from property to Formula One motor racing, a final chance to raise funds in order to bail out Roy.

If it fails to raise cash in the next three months, the court could appoint a receiver to auction its assets, which include properties such as New York's Plaza hotel and tracts of land in India. This could prove a challenge as industry analysts say a fire sale may not raise enough to free Roy and get Sahara back on its feet.

"If you ask people if this is the best time to sell high value assets in the country, the majority of them would say no," said Sanjay Dutt, head of property consultant Cushman and Wakefield in India. "With this kind of investment, somebody has to be very ambitious in every sense of the word."

Sahara did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Roy describes himself as guardian of the world's largest family and calls himself "managing worker". Without him, several employees said operations across the group had been hit over the past year. Roy is not only the face of Sahara, but he also single-handedly controls an operation spread across dozens of tiny subsidiaries in India, Mauritius and Britain, several employees said.

Sahara has made several, failed attempts to raise the money to free Roy on bail. He has been held in jail for more than a year after regulators said Sahara failed to comply with a court order to refund billions of dollars to investors in a bond programme that was ruled illegal. Sahara has said it has paid most of the dues to the bondholders. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), which is seeking redress for millions of investors, disputes that.

RACE FOR CASH

Despite Sahara's interest in a host of businesses - from media, retail and insurance to films and an F1 racing team - it will have to rely on its property assets to raise funds.

Profits at Sahara One Media and Entertainment (SAHM.BO: Quote, Profile, Research), which produces and distributes movies and makes TV content, dropped 64 percent to 19 million rupees ($304,500) in the year to March 2014, documents filed with the regulator show. Profit at its life insurance unit fell by more than a fifth to 238 million rupees, according to the documents reviewed by Reuters.

But raising funds by selling local properties such as the Aamby Valley township outside Mumbai, which has luxury villas and a golf course, will be tough in a market that has yet to recover from a painful economic slowdown.

In its last attempt, Sahara said it was close to finalising a deal with U.S.-based investor Mirach Capital to raise money by taking a loan against its overseas hotels including the Plaza, but those talks fell through.

Earlier this month, Sahara's landmark Grosvenor House hotel in London was put up for sale. A Bank of China loan, partly backed by the hotel, was declared in default.

Sahara, which bought the central London hotel in 2010, had said the administrator would give "control back to the Sahara directors," after it has the loan refinanced. A spokesman for consultants Deloitte, hired as administrators, declined to comment on whether it had received any proposal from Sahara.

Roy built the Sahara empire starting with 2,000 rupees and a Lambretta scooter in the late 1970s. He built a profile that brought the country's prime minister, state chief ministers, actors and cricketers to attend his extravagant parties.

($1 = 62.3950 Indian rupees)

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.