Firm That Bought Sahara’s Grosvenor House Was Incorporated A Week Ago

The Supreme Court was told yesterday (19 June) by the Sahara Group that it had sold its Grosvenor House Hotel in London to an entity called GH Equity UK. The group’s counsel sought the court’s indulgence so that the money can be remitted to the SEBI-Sahara refund account.

According to a business information portal called Endole, GH Equity was incorporated barely a week ago on 13 June, and has a registered office in the City of London. No other details are known about its board or its key personnel.

The court would thus do well to check the antecedents of the company buying the hotel before allowing Sahara to pay its dues.

In April, a bench headed by justices Dipak Misra and Ranjan Gogoi, both of whom are likely to become chief justices, with Misra preceding Gogoi, ordered Sahara to deposit Rs 1,500 crore by 15 June (a deadline it missed) and another Rs 522 crore by 15 July.

According to a Business Standard report, a post-dated cheque for Rs 1,500 crore bounced, and the group was able to provide only Rs 790 crore as on 19 June. The court gave Sahara 10 more days to comply with, failing which Sahara boss Subrata Roy will have to go back to jail.

At Monday’s hearing the Sahara counsel, Kapil Sibal, claimed that one entity called GH Equity of UK had bought Grosvenor House, and the sale proceeds would allow Sahara to bring in around £75 million, which would be worth around Rs 610 crore at current exchange rates.

On 31 August 2012, the Supreme Court ordered Sahara Group to wind up two companies which had collected huge sums from investors without SEBI’s permission. At that point, the court has ordered repayment of the money collected, which amounted to over Rs 24,000 crore, but with SEBI being the conduit for repayment to genuine investors. Most of the investors appeared untraceable.

Since the Sahara Group is in the dock largely on the suspicion that many of its investors may be non-existent, it would make sense for the court to also check the antecedents of GH Equity too.