Sahara looks to raise loan worth US $650 million to fund Subrata Roy's bail

Home-grown conglomerate Sahara said on Friday it aimed to raise US $650 million in loans to secure the release of its chief Subrata Roy, in jail for nearly nine months over the group's failure to refund billions of dollars to investors in outlawed bonds.

Sahara, which owns luxury hotels the Grosvenor House in London and the Plaza Hotel in New York, has also sought the Supreme Court's permission to take over an existing loan on its three overseas hotels from Bank of China.

The conglomerate will go for refinancing after that, Sahara said in a statement, without naming the refinancing bank.

Sahara did not say how much was the outstanding loan from Bank of China, but court documents previously showed an amount of more than US $900 million. The SC will hear Sahara's plea on Tuesday, the company statement said.

The apex court has asked Sahara to pay Rs 10,0000 crore (US $1.6 billion) initially to secure bail for its chief Roy, one of the country's best-known business tycoons.

Roy has been held in Tihar jail in the national capital since March 4 in a long-running dispute with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) over the refunds.

In October, the capital market watchdog accused Sahara of deliberately failing to sell the marquee overseas hotels, which Sahara had told the court it would sell or mortgage to raise the bail money.

(Reuters)