Sahara India bids $600 mn for Plaza Hotel in New York: report

Multi-business Indian conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar, whose businesses range from airlines, luxury resorts to media finance, has made an unsolicited $600 million bid for Plaza Hotel in New York, The Wall Street Journal today reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The deal would need the approval of two owners, Israeli entrepreneur Isaac Tshuva's Elad Properties and Kingdom Holdings, controlled by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Sahara India Pariwar, run by billionaire Subrata Roy has made the offer to El Ad, which is examining the proposal, said the paper.

Sahara's $600-million offer is divided into two parts, $400 million for the hotel portion of the Plaza, which has 230 rooms, and the remaining $200 million for the retail portion of the hotel, which encompasses the hotel's banquet hall, fitness centre and other common areas wholly owned by El Ad.

Kingdom spokesman Charles Henry told the paper, "Kingdom is not a seller of its interest at this time," but El Ad can sell its own interest, though Kingdom's approval of such a deal would be needed.

Kingdom owns 50 per cent of an entity that holds 130 of the Plaza's rooms and 25 per cent of another entity that holds 100 rooms that were to be sold as condominiums but are still rented out as hotel rooms. El Ad owns the rest.