The Quintessential mansions in Mumbai

When you have money, invest it in property. What better examples than the business tycoons who have bought expensive mansions for amounts beyond imagination? Let us take a look at some of the most extravagant bungalows owned by these magnates.

Aashirwad:

Yesteryears’ superstar Rajesh Khanna’s home, Aashirwad was sold to a businessman for a mere Rs. 95 crore. Khanna had bought this 6500 sq ft property from Rajendra Jubilee Kumar. This sea facing bungalow on Carter Road was under controversy after Anita Advani had sent a legal notice to Khanna’s family claiming her right on the house. Apparently, according to sources, the house was also haunted.

Aashirwad – Rajesh Khanna’s home

Gulistan:

Gulistan, a 3-storey mansion situated on the Napean Sea Road was acquired by Mahindra’s real estate arm for Rs. 270 crore. The group’s MD & Vice Chairman Anand Mahindra was born and lived here as a tenant till the bungalow was officially purchased. The tenancy dates back to his grandfather, K.C. Mahindra’s times. The 13,000 sq ft property is located opposite Priyadarshini Park.

Gulistan : Anand Mahindra

Bishops Gate:

A 40,000 sq ft property, Bishops Gate, was sold to Peninsula Land, an Ashok Piramal Group company for Rs. 272 crore. The property, located in the upscale Breach Candy area was owned by Standard Chartered (75%) and HSBC (25%) and housed senior officials from both banks. The building which formerly had 12 apartments and 12 garages is now being redeveloped into a luxury tower by Peninsula Land Ltd.

Bishops Gate :

 Kapadia Bungalow:

Nepean Grange, the 2-storey mansion built by the Kapadia family in 1918 was bought by Runwal Builders for Rs. 270 crore. The property admeasures 2048 sq meters, has an outhouse, a servants’ quarter and a huge car park. Although the Runwals settled the deal for Rs. 270 crore with the Kapadias, they had to pay an additional Rs. 80 crore to the tenant, Lilani family to vacate the property taking the overall transaction to Rs. 350 crore.

The Runwals plan to demolish the bungalow and erect a high-end plush residential tower here.

Kapadia Bungalow:

Mehrangir Bungalow

The iconic bungalow, Mehrangir, home to the father of India’s atomic energy programme – Homi J Bhabha was sold to Smita Crishna-Godrej for Rs 372 crore. Many people in the city wanted to preserve this 15,000 sq ft property and turn it into a museum.

Smita has assured that the home where Homi Bhabha grew up will not be demolished. The 3-storey mansion spread over 1,593 sq m plot will be used as a residence for her family. Interestingly, the Godrej family paid Rs. 115 crore more than the reserve price of Rs. 257 crore for this historic property.

Mehrangir Bungalow

Jatia House:

This property in the posh Malabar Hill was on the blocks for sale for quite some time when last year it found its new owner in Kumar Mangalam Birla. Birla paid Rs. 425 crore for this sea facing bungalow built over a sprawling 30,000 sq ft. this transaction is one of the most expensive ones with regards to amount paid per square feet. While The Jatias were finding it difficult to maintain the house as it was too big, the Birlas who presently reside on Altamount Road plan to make this mansion their family house.

Jatia House

Lincoln House:

Cyrus Poonawala, the Chairperson of the Poonawala group purchased this heritage property last year for a monstrous amount of Rs. 750 crore. Lincoln House, which originally housed the US consulate, has a massive area of 50,000 sq ft. the Poonawalas will use this as their family residence.

While the per sq ft rate of this 2 acre property is a whopping Rs 86,088, the selling price of Rs. 750 crore is still 100 crore less than the reserve price due to the restrictions on its redevelopment.

Lincoln House

Indiabulls Housing Finance

OakNorth, which is a London lender now aims to challenge the dominance of other large global finance companies such as; HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland in India.  Now India is prime destination for investors and it is emerging in as the world’s largest financial centre. Indiabulls Housing Finance, one of the Indian corporate houses is ready to acquire a large stake in a London based foreign bank, OakNorth. According to sources, Indiabulls Housing Finance is buying 39.8 per cent stake in UK’s OakNorth Bank for $ 100 million.

Sameer Ghelot, Chairman of Indianbulls group is also planning to acquire 10 per cent stake in the same bank through his personal capital with same valuation. This deal is one of the largest deal among several other Indo-British deals and it is expected that deal will be signed on Thursday when PM Narendra Modi will meet the British PM David Cameron in London. The National Housing Bank (of India), the Reserve Bank of India and Prudential Regulation Authority of the Bank of England have approved this investment. First time in history these regulatory approval authorities are ready to approve such a big stake to any Indian corporate into a foreign bank, as per company statement. After this deal Indiabulls group will be the largest shareholder in the OakNorth Bank. However; still company has an option to increase its stake in the bank in near future, as per company sources.

About OakNorth Bank:

OakNorth Bank is London based largest non-bank lender active in SME segment with outstanding SME loan assets of over $2.3 billion and loan disbursals to these companies at over $5 billion, as per company sources. In UK, OakNorth Bank is focusing on the structurally under-served SME sector and now at this point of time Indiabulls with a decade-plus experience in lending at same sector in India is ready to take benefit from resources and market skills of OakNorth Bank as Indiabulls has an extensive credit processes based on cash flows. However; on the same time OakNorth Bank will also take benefit from Indiabulls’ experience as it is one of the largest lender in small business, especially with its LAP (Loan Against Property) products.

In 2013, Rishi Khosla a former adviser of India-born steel magnet Lakshmi Mittal was put the foundation of OakNorth Bank. During the phase of set up, OakNorth Bank had secured an investment and funding from a former member of Bank of England’s monetary policy committee. However; in present a former chairman of Financial Services Authority of the UK is on its board of directors. On the deal, Gehlot stated that with this investment, Indiabulls group total exposure in London will become shinier with excess of Rs 4,200 crores. Apart from this deal group’s real estate arm is engage in redeveloping the four projects in London, which is worth of total Rs 3,500 crore.

From the side of Indiabulls, this investment decision was led by a former deputy governor of RBI, MR. K C Chakrabarty as currently he is acting as an independent director on the Indiabulls board now.

Sahara Group have 90 days time to raise Rs 1,200 crore

On Monday, the Supreme Court gave a time period of 90 days to Sahara group to finalize the deal of its three hotels which includes abroad and domestic properties to raise the Rs 5,000 crore cash component of the bail condition for release of its owner Subrata Roy and its other two group directors. As per the statement of a bench of Justices A K Sikri and T S Thakur, we have given you the last and final opportunity and this time if you will fail so we will appoint the receiver for auction of your assets.

Why money is essential for Sahara Group:

Last year on March 4, Roy was sent to jail for the violation of the order of apex court on dated August 31, 2012, directing two group companies to return Rs 24,000 crore to investors. Sahara has deposited Rs 5,120 crore by claiming that it had a liability of just a little more than Rs 2,000 crore. However, it is well know thing that on March 26, 2014, the court was granted an interim bail to Roy and its two directors by stating that they would be released only after the deposit of Rs 5,000 crore in cash and furnished bank guarantee for another Rs 5,000 crore. Till now the group has deposited approx. Rs 3,800 crore and is short by Rs 1,200 crore. Appearing for Sahara, its senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the bench that one of the Hong Kong-based financial reconstruction companies is facilitating a 900 million euro deal with Dubai based firm known as Trinity that would take over Bank of China’s (BoC) charge on the three hotels, Dream Downtown and the Plaza in New York and Grosvenor House in London.

The more he added that the buyers Spanish Bank BBVA has confirmed the buyer’s financial capability that had certified that the buyer had more than 900 million euros in its account and it represents that they had earned and through non-criminal activities.He said the buyer’s financial capability was confirmed by Spanish Bank BBVA, which had certified that the buyer had more than 900 million euros in its account which was legitimately earned and through non-criminal activity. Sibal said that after paying off BoC, Sahara would get Rs 650 crore, which would be deposited towards meeting the bail bond conditions.

An effort to raise Money:

However, when SC asked that how Sahara group will arrange the remain money for bail, so Sibal replied that Sahara Group was planning to sell more than 10 properties including residential and commercial properties and in addition to nine already identified for the purpose. Out of nine, the group has already sold five and it will provide another Rs 700 crore, the Sibal added. The bench of SC said it was prima facie satisfied with the group’s extended conference room facility and proposal in Tihar jail for Sahara Chief and two directors to negotiate and finalize the deals. On the competent of bank guarantee, Sibal added that the group plans to pledge 800 acres of its Aamby Valley project, so that an Argentine bank can get a bank guarantee through HSBC and Panama is one of the names of Aamby Ventures, Mauritius.

According to bank, Aamby Ventures is nominating the Rs 5,000 crore bank guarantee in of SEBI-Sahara account, but court said that as you are struggling to raise Rs. 1,200 crore for your release, so a very next day after your release from jail we can ask for the rest Rs 30,000 crore as you were directed to pay. So do you have any plan to arrange that money or how you are going to arrange that money in future? In reply Sibal added that “we don’t agree that we have the liability to pay Rs 30,000 crore as we are not arguing that today, just allow us space to cross the first hurdle in the fight, on that issue we will argue on another day. After knowing a soft corner Justice Thakur has for poetry Sibal stated that “Roj ki yeh jang hai, kaheen kati patang hai! Mauka mila fir bhi, laga raasta to tang hai” to highlight the difficult period the Sahara group through which Sahara group is going through in these days to carry on negotiation process to sale the property.

In the reply of the “shayari” of Justice Thakur, on Monday Justice Sikri return the favor by saying that, “Dard ki yoon aadat ho gayi hai! Jis din dard na mile to bhi dard sa hota hai” to drive home that such financial difficulties have become a way of life for the Sahara group.