Following directions from the Supreme Court, the official liquidator began the auction process for the embattled Sahara group's luxurious Aamby Valley resort town by inviting bids at a reserve price of £3.73 billion. The liquidator said the property includes timber chalets, modern villas, golf course, hospital, school and airport, among other amenities.
The official liquidator of the Bombay High Court published an auction notice inviting prospective bidders for the integrated hill city township spread over 6,761.6 acres near Lonavala in Pune district, as also two land parcels measuring over 1,700 acres.
Sahara group has earlier pegged the market value of the project at over £10 billion. The auction process has been initiated even as a Mauritius-based investor, Royale Partners Investment Fund, last week said it has offered to invest $1.67 billion in Sahara group's Aamby Valley project.
Last week, the Supreme Court had said the auction process can start on August 14, as scheduled, but if £150 million is paid, as proposed by the group, into the Sebi-Sahara refund account by September 7, then it may pass an appropriate order.
The group had asked the court to postpone the auction till September 16 to enable Sahara group chief Subrata Roy arrange the money.
The official liquidator said in the auction notice that the prospective bidders need to submit their KYC forms and on qualification they will have to invite bids along with 15 per cent of the reserve price as earnest money. The properties on action include an integrated hill city township spread over 6,761.642 acres in the great Sahayadri mountain range, 1,409.865 acres of land surrounding Aamby Valley City Development and land measuring 321.656 acres within the Satara district.
The liquidator said the properties are being sold under two distinct phases over a period of two days, as an alternate to each other, "given the quantum of the properties to be sold".
