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Adani bid for Sahara assets: India’s corporate world is abuzz with the news of Adani Properties Private Ltd’s offer to buy 88 properties from the debt-laden Sahara Group. The proposed multi-thousand-crore deal, now before the Supreme Court, includes marquee holdings such as the Sahara Star Hotel in Mumbai, Aamby Valley township near Lonavala, real estate in Lucknow, and several land parcels across India.
For Adani Properties, the acquisition aligns with its strategy of expanding and consolidating prime real estate and hospitality assets, deepening its footprint in key cities. For Sahara, it could be the last major effort to resolve a decade-long financial crisis that has eroded its credibility and strained its operations.
While the transaction offers hope for thousands of investors and lenders awaiting refunds, identifying genuine claimants and ensuring transparent fund distribution remain formidable challenges. The Supreme Court’s approval will determine the fate of this deal, which is fraught with many legal and regulatory challenges.
While court records indicate that the Sahara Group has already deposited close to Rs 25,000 crore with SEBI over the years as part of its obligation to refund investors, there remains considerable ambiguity over how those funds have been or will be utilised.
The proposed sale of Sahara’s assets adds another layer of uncertainty. It is still unclear whether the proceeds from the proposed transaction will be directly channelled to investors through SEBI’s refund mechanism or diverted first toward settling other liabilities and expenses.
Legal experts have noted that the Supreme Court will need to lay down clear guidelines to ensure transparency and accountability in the disbursement process. “The regulator is yet to identify and repay the full amount of Rs 25,000 crore lying in its account. So what will happen to the proceeds from the sale of assets now? Who are the investors? Whose money is it? Why are they not approaching Sebi for the refund?” an analyst with an investment firm told The Indian Express, alluding to the unanswered questions.
In March 2023, the Supreme Court ordered that Rs 5,000 crore of the total amount of Rs 24,979.67 crore lying in the “Sahara-SEBI Refund Account” be transferred to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies, which, in turn, would disburse the same against the legitimate dues of the depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies.
The Ministry of Cooperation in July 2025 noted that as of July 23, an amount of Rs 5,139.23 crore has been disbursed to 27,33,520 depositors out of 1,35,34,410 depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies, and Rs 523.72 crore was available for disbursement. The Supreme Court has granted an extension in refunding the Sahara depositors until December 31, 2025.
One big question remains unanswered: who will get the proceeds from the proposed sale?
Starting with a meagre capital of only Rs 2,000, Subrata Roy’s Sahara group travelled a long way to expand the business over the last 45 years. Roy, who died in November 2023, built up his empire by collecting deposits from millions of poor and rural Indians with limited or no access to formal banking services. The empire once comprised an airline, Formula One team, IPL cricket team, luxury hotels in London and New York, financial companies, and a sizeable land bank. Some of these assets are either under attachment or have been sold off to pay SEBI.
The Sahara group’s troubles began when the market regulator took action against Roy for illegally mobilising funds of over Rs 24,000 crore from three crore individuals in Optionally Fully Convertible Debentures through two financial companies, Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL) and Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL).
In 2010, Sebi ordered Sahara to refund the money to investors and banned both companies and Roy from raising money from the public.
In 2013, Sahara sent 127 trucks containing 31,669 cartons full of over three crore application forms and two crore redemption vouchers to the Sebi office.
In March 2014, Roy was sent to jail in contempt of court for not paying a sum of Rs 10,000 crore. The court ordered that he not be released until he pays Rs 5,000 crore in cash and Rs 5,000 crore by way of bank guarantee.
In 2013, Sebi ordered the attachment of all properties and bank accounts of the Sahara group and top executives, including Subrata Roy, following a direction from the Supreme Court. The market regulator authorised HDFC Realty and SBI Capital Markets to auction 60 properties across the country following a directive from the Supreme Court.
Sahara had a total land bank of 33,633 acres, out of which the Aamby Valley City project near Lonavala accounts for 10,600 acres. As most of these assets are involved in litigation, there may not have been many takers for them, said a market source.
AAMBY VALLEY CITY: At its inception, the Aamby Valley City was described by the group as independent India’s first planned hill city, located in the scenic surroundings of the Sahyadris, spanning over 10,000 acres, near Pune.
In 2018, the Supreme Court allowed Sahara Group to sell its Aamby Valley township in parts through a court-appointed liquidator. The auction process began in August 2018 with the official liquidator inviting bids at a reserve price of Rs 37,392 crore. Bids to auction the property haven’t succeeded so far. In 2023, the Supreme Court rejected a plea by Sahara Group urging it to lift the attachment of its Aamby Valley project and permit it to enter into an agreement with Royal Partners Investment Fund for selling its 26 per cent stake for $1.6 billion.
OVERSEAS HOLDINGS: Despite the regulator blocking the group’s core business of fund mobilisation from small retail investors, Sahara Group purchased three overseas hotels: the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, the New York Plaza and the Dream New York hotels in 2010.
In 2017, the group sold its stake in Grosvenor House to GH Equity UK for £575 million to clear its dues to Sebi. The Plaza Hotel, one of New York’s most iconic buildings, was fully acquired by a Qatar government-owned fund for about $600 million. The Dream New York hotel was also sold off. However, the group still operates the Sahara Star hotel near the Mumbai airport.
AIRLINES, FORMULA ONE TEAM: While Air Sahara had begun operations as Sahara Airlines in December 1993, the group found it a tough proposition to run an airline with mounting losses. In 2007, Jet Airways acquired the airline for Rs 1,450 crore, bringing an end to Roy’s aviation plans.
A similar story unfolded with Sahara’s F1 team, Sahara Force India. In August 2018, the governing FIA announced that the team had been renamed Racing Point Force India after an administrator-led asset sale to a consortium led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll.
MUTUAL FUNDS: Sahara’s plans to grow through the mutual fund route also didn’t work out. In July 2015, Sebi cancelled the registration of Sahara Mutual Fund, saying it was no longer ‘fit and proper’ to carry out this business and ordered that its operations be transferred to another fund house. It was then one of the smallest fund houses with just Rs 134 crore assets under management. Sebi also cancelled the portfolio management licence of Sahara.
