INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Authors: JordanNew York: A Dubai investment group and a New York real estate company have reached a deal to buy the majority stake owned by
to close the deal, real estate newspaper Real Deal reported quoting sources close to the buyers.Roy's Sahara Group has been under orders
from the Supreme Court to make refunds of thousands of crore rupees to investors.The New York Times identified the buyers as Shahal Khan,
founder of the Dubai-based White City Ventures, and Kamran Hakim of the Hakim Organisation, a New York City real estate company.The
newspaper said the deal was confirmed by Sandeep Wadhwa, head of corporate finance at the Sahara Group, which owns a 70 per cent stake in
the hotel, and Sant Singh Chatwal, a hotelier who owns 5 per cent being sold.One of the sources for funding the acquisition by Khan and
Hakim is a loan from David and Simon Reuben, whom the Real Deal described as "Mumbai-born British billionaires" who "bought the note on the
Plaza from Sahara in 2015".A partnership of the real estate firm Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp and Saudi Prince Al-waleed bin Talel-controlled
Kingdom Holdings owns the remaining 25 per cent of the Plaza, the Times said.The Plaza Hotel founded in 1907 is one of the city's
landmarks.The Sahara Group is under court orders in India to pay off debts amounting to several thousands of crores of rupees.The Securities
and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had asked the court in 2014 to order the recovery of Rs 36,000 crore from Sahara to pay investors who had
bought securities from two companies belonging to the group.Roy is now out on parole after spending time in Delhi's Tihar Jail for failing
to comply with court orders.Last year, a New York company, MG Capital Holdings, backed out of an offer to buy the hotel for $550 million and
failed to pay the required deposit of Rs 750 crore in the SEBI account for Sahara refunds to investors.The Supreme Court, which had ordered
the repayment of Sahara debts, jailed Prakash Muthuswamy, who held the power of attorney for the prospective buyer, for one month.Unlike
previous deals, the offer by Khan and Hakim is expected to go through because they made an irrevocable $30-million deposit, the Times
said.However, the Times said that the minority shareholder, the Ashkenazy and Kingdom partnership, have the right of first refusal to buy
the hotel at the same price.The Real Deal said that Sahara may consider a lower bid from Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp.Meanwhile, The Wall
Street Journal reported that employees at the hotel were on strike and that guests who had booked rooms costing as much as $1,000 a night
were being turned away.Real Deal described Khan as the founder of Chimera Group and the Dubai-based investment company, White City
Ventures.According to the newspaper, Hakim is an immigrant from Iran and a company controlled by him owns more than 100 properties in New
York.CNBC, the business TV channel, reported that Chimera had considered a proposal to raise money for buying the Plaza Hotel through a
cryptocurrency offering valued at $375 million
But Real Deal said that cryptocurrency was not being used.(This story has not been edited by staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated
