SEBI may outsource auction of 87 Sahara properties
SEBI may outsource auction of 87 Sahara properties
As part of the long effort to recover money from the Sahara Group, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning to outsource the Sahara property auction job, which could be worth nearly Rs 40,000 crore. The market regulator is in talks with SBI CAP Trustee Co and UTI Infrastructure Technology and Services for potential sale of 87 properties owned by Sahara.
The Supreme Court had earlier granted SEBI, the permission to sell assets of Sahara Chief Subroto Roy to generate money required to bail out the latter from jail.
“The claims made by Sahara on the properties and the respective title deeds can be verified only when some third party is appointed for verification,” a SEBI source told reporters. A property advisor explained that outsourced agencies will require examining the documents of all the 87 properties and the status of the said lands. This could take several months.
This mammoth exercise involves 87 properties in 71 cities, covering 7,161 acres, of which only 47 title deeds seem clear as per submissions made by Sahara to the SC in 2013.
The 71 locations of Sahara properties include Pomgaon and Kumheri villages near its Aamby Valley project in Pune district while the other chunks are in Faridabad, Noida, Muzzafarnagar and Haridwar. These assets together account for nearly Rs 12,000 crore.
The hearing on SEBI’s application for appointing a receiver to auction Sahara’s properties is scheduled for April 27.
