The Sahara Group has not reverted to the Pune-based vaccine billionaires Cyrus and Adar Poonawala’s on their revised £550 million bid for London-based Grosvenor House hotel.
“We have still not heard from Sahara on the matter for the last two weeks, so they have either progressed with the Qataris or don’t want to sell,” Adar Poonwala, CEO, Serum Institute told BusinessLine .
Discussion by the Poonawalas on acquiring what is described as a “trophy asset” began two months ago, with Pune-based real estate magnate Atul Chordia initiating the talks with Sahara. “He may take 5-10 per cent stake if the acquisition goes through,” Adar explained. The ante has also been upped from the earlier £470 million.
Sahara had put three of its hotel assets on sale. These include one in London and two hotels, namely The Plaza and Dream Downtown, in New York. This is to raise ₹24,000 crore needed to secure bail for jailed chief Subrata Roy and repay investors.
The other contenders in the race are the royal family of Qatar and Sultan of Brunei. While Sahara is believed to be looking for a buyer who will cough out close to $1.2 billion for the all three hotels, the Poonwalas are clearly interested in only the London property.
“We go to the UK more often than to New York. So we were looking for a home-cum-asset that would grow. There is lot of scope for improvement and growth,” Poonwala said. Cyrus Poonawala is ranked tenth in the 2014 Forbes list of 100 richest Indians.