Sahara seals Rs 5,500-cr debt deal for foreign hotels

Grosvenor House hotel was put on sale by its lender Bank of China earlier this year after a 'technical default'

In a major deal for Saharas, billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben have acquired control of the crisis-hit Indian group's iconic Grosvenor House hotel here and the two US properties -- Plaza and Dream Downtown -- in a $850 million (Rs 5,500 crore) debt refinance deal, a media report said on Sunday.

There was no official word from Sahara Group on this and the emailed queries in this regard remained unanswered.

Reuben brothers "have taken control of the Grosvenor House in London and two other luxury hotels in New York through a $850 million debt deal," the Sunday Times reported.

It further said "David and Simon Reuben, whose empire stretches from data centres to horse racing, clinched the purchase of two loans against the properties from Bank of China late last week" and they have given a four-month extension to the Sahara Group.

The Grosvenor House hotel was put on sale by its lender Bank of China earlier this year after a 'technical default'.

Sahara Group has been trying to raise funds to secure release of its chief Subrata Roy, who has been lodged in Tihar Jail for over a year, through monetisation of its various assets including the three overseas hotels.

Bank of China put Grosvenor House under "administration" early in March for recovery of its loans, while Deloitte and realty consultant JLL were mandated to find a buyer.

At that time, Sahara Group had said it was still working on a refinancing transaction to repay the loans to Bank of China and regain control of the iconic property.

Sahara had also said that the London hotel was being "treated under default" because Bank of China has declared "an event of default" on the US loans due to some "technical breaches" in the financial covenants.

The loan on Sahara's three hotels from Bank of China was "cross collateralised and cross guaranteed".

Sahara had said that the debt servicing for the UK and US loans "has always been completely proper and timely".

Saharas' refinancing arrangements involved getting a fresh loan for the three properties. A part of the proceeds would be given to Bank of China for release of Grosvenor House from "administration", while the remainder could be deposited with Sebi to secure release of Roy and two other top officials from Tihar Jail.

Grosvenor House, a landmark property on Park Lane here that was designed by acclaimed architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, was purchased by Saharas in 2010. The two hotels in the US were purchased later.

The three hotels were acquired between 2010-2012 at an estimated valuation of $1.55 billion.

The group has been engaged in a legal battle with Indian markets regulator Sebi for a long time over a case involving raising of funds from investors to the tune of over Rs 24,000 crore. Sahara, however, claims it has already repaid 95% of the investors money directly.