Sebi lines up 13 more Sahara properties for auction

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has lined up 13 more land parcels belonging to beleaguered Sahara Group as it moves ahead with sale of Sahara assets to recover investor money.

These properties will be e-auctioned next month at a total reserve price of about Rs1,400 crore.

Following directions from the Supreme Court for sale of certain Sahara assets to recover money, Sebi had, in July, planned to sell 58 properties of the group that had a combined reserve price of nearly Rs5,000 crore.

Sebi, in a separate notice, also said SBI Caps will auction six Sahara properties at a reserve price of over Rs672 crore, on 25 October and HDFC Realty will auction seven properties, at a reserve price of over Rs710 crore, on 27 October.

Sebi has mandated SBI Capital Markets (SBI Caps) and HDFC Realty to auction 61 land parcels belonging to Sahara Group.

HDFC Realty has been entrusted with the auctioning of 31 land parcels at a reserve price of Rs2,400 crore, while SBI Caps has been asked to auction 30 land properties of an estimated market value of about Rs4,100 crore.

These properties are spread across the country and mostly include land parcels. As per the court directions, they cannot be sold at below 90 per cent of the circle rates.

Meanwhile, Sahara chief Subrata Roy is on parole after spending two years in jail. He was sent to jail on the orders of the Supreme Court in a long-running dispute over illegal fund-raising by two group companies of Sahara.