India's Sahara head back in jail cell, hotel deal uncertain (updated)

Sahara Housingfina

02/10/2014 13:09

(Adds source-based details on sale negotiations, background on 
buyers) 
    NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Subrata Roy, the jailed 
head of India's Sahara conglomerate, is back in a cell after 
living in a makeshift prison office for two months while working 
on the sale of three luxury hotels in New York and London, a 
deal that is still hanging. 
    India's top court had allowed the tycoon to use an office, 
phone, Internet connection and three secretaries in the Delhi 
prison to facilitate the sale of three hotels including 
Grosvenor House in London and the Plaza in New York. 
    Roy needs to raise 100 billion rupees ($1.6 billion) from 
the hotel sales to have a chance of obtaining release on bail. 
 ID:nL4N0Q52T6  
    He has been moved back to a cell after a court-imposed 
deadline for the use of the office expired, although the 
businessman had requested more time, Tihar Jail spokesman Mukesh 
Prasad said. 
    "He was asking officials. We told him we don't have the 
power to extend those facilities," the spokesman said.  
    Roy was jailed for contempt of court in March amid a 
long-running dispute with India's capital markets watchdog over 
Sahara's failure to repay billions of dollars to investors who 
were sold outlawed bonds. 
    A source close to the company said Roy did not have enough 
time to complete the sale. 
    "Any negotiation of big-ticket items takes time, out of 
which maximum time gets spent on conducting due diligence and 
working out the current valuations," the source said.  
    "Roy and his team are working hard and trying their best 
even in wake of the current restrictions that Roy is in now," he 
said. 
    A Sahara spokesman declined to comment. 
    Sahara has said it is in talks with multiple potential 
buyers but has refrained from naming any suitors. 
    In August, the Wall Street Journal's online edition reported 
that the Sultan of Brunei had made a $2 billion bid for the 
hotels, but a spokesperson for the Sultan later dismissed the 
report as inaccurate.  ID:nL5N0QO3HV  
    Last month, a senior company executive told Reuters that the 
firm would rather mortgage its trophy overseas hotel properties 
than sell them.  ID:nL3N0R63OG  
    Unlisted Sahara, best known as the long-time former main 
sponsor of India's national cricket team, paid 470 million 
pounds ($759 million) in 2010 for Grosvenor House and about $570 
million for the Plaza in 2012. It also owns the Dream Hotel in 
New York. 
(1 US dollar = 61.6500 Indian rupee) 
(1 US dollar = 0.6193 British pound) 
 
 (Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Devidutta Tripathy; Writing by 
Himank Sharma; Editing by Stephen Coates and Jane Baird) 
 ((Himank.Sharma@thomsonreuters.com; http://twitter.com/@wolvhim; 
 +91 22 6180 7207; Reuters Messaging: 
himank.sharma.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SAHARA INDIA/ROY