Sahara chief says not selling overseas hotels

Sahara group chief Subrata Roy (pictured) is not selling any of his parivar silvers or the three iconic hotels -- Grosvenor House in London and the Plaza and Dream Downtown in New York – as the group’s assets, he claims, are more than adequate to pay off Rs 2,500 crore left to be paid to its debenture holders.

“Today we have offers, after paying foreign debts for the three hotels, for about Rs 10,500 crore. But, of course, we aren’t selling,” Roy told a press conference.

Incommunicado since the Supreme Court barred him from leaving the country and taking prior permission from selling any assets, Roy faced the media in Kolkata after two days of meeting with his “workers” ostensibly called to tell them all is well with the group.

Roy said he would move the Supreme Court shortly to allow the group submit title deeds of the properties directly to the nationalised banks and not to Sebi, the securities market regulator, which, he has been alleging, has vindictive attitude.

Roy claimed his public liabilities now are only about Rs 35,000 crore while the “fair value” of his assets is Rs 1.20 lakh crore.

And this is not an “overvalued” figure, which Sebi has claimed before the court, he said.

“We had submitted securities of certain land valued at Rs 8.75 crore an acre. But Sebi could manage a value of just Rs 54 lakh an acre from the same valuer,” Roy said.

Sahara’s deposit-taking hasn’t been affected despite the court ruling and is, in fact, rising. It is now at Rs 12,000 crore a year.

Against this, his annual pay out to depositors is about Rs 600-800 crore. Also, Sahara is coming up with investments that, within the next 8-10 years would generate revenues of whooping Rs 18 lakh crore, he said.

The specifics for these projects weren’t provided.