David and Simon Reuben, the Mumbai-born British billionaire brothers, whose interests include metals trading, data centres and horse racing, have ‘taken control’ of the Sahara-owned Grosvenor House hotel in London, The Sunday Times reported.
The Sahara group has been trying to raise funds to seal the bail amount for its chairman, Subrata Roy, who has been in Delhi’s Tihar jail for over a year.
“Sahara India Group has successfully managed to avert the enforced sale of the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. A team led by the Group chairman has successfully negotiated a last-minute deal with the Reuben brothers, who are now in the final stage of taking over the loan portfolio from the Bank of China,” Sahara said in a statement.
According to The Sunday Times report, the Reuben brothers had “taken control of the Grosvenor House in London and two other luxury hotels in New York through a $850 million (Rs 5,500 crore) debt deal” after clinching the purchase of two loans against the properties from Bank of China late last week. “They are understood to have given a four-month extension to the Sahara Group”, the report added.
The Sahara group had bought the Grosvenor House and the Dreams and Plaza hotels in New York between 2010 and 2012 by funding the deals with debt from Bank of China, but faced losing the assets after defaulting on the US part of the loans last year.
{{/usCountry}}The Sahara group had bought the Grosvenor House and the Dreams and Plaza hotels in New York between 2010 and 2012 by funding the deals with debt from Bank of China, but faced losing the assets after defaulting on the US part of the loans last year.
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