Failed deal: Now Mirach Capital prepares lawsuit to hit back Sahara

New York/New Delhi: Warning Saharas of legal action for “breach of contract and defamation”, US-based Mirach Capital today said it will submit a “declaration of facts” before the Supreme Court about the $2.05 billion financing offer it had made to the crisis-hit Indian group. This follows Sahara yesterday initiating legal action against Mirach for alleged “cheating and forgery” with regard to the deal that involved transfer of the Indian group’s existing loans from Bank of China for three iconic hotels to a new set of investors.[caption id=“attachment_1556515” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy. AFP[/caption] While Sahara group said it is now working on a new deal to raise funds to secure release of its chief Subrata Roy and two of this colleagues from Tihar jail, Mirach said it “remains willing to complete a sale” of the three hotels – The Plaza and Dream Downtown in New York and Grosvenor House in London. Continuing the war of words between the two parties, Mirach Capital said in a statement it will submit an affidavit in Supreme Court of India to end the “unfounded, highly publicised defamation campaign”. Mirach further said it is preparing “legal action against Sahara over issues such as breach of contract, defamation of character” amongst other deal related problems. In the statement, Mirach’s Indian-origin CEO Saransh Sharma said: “The allegations are frivolous, and are wasting time as the February 20 deadline approaches. “A simple meta-data test and review of the evidence would dispel any notions of forged documents, prior to consuming the court’s valuable time with a lawsuit.” A blame-game has been continuing between Sahara and Mirach for about a week now over their floundered deal. The three iconic hotels were acquired by Saharas between 2010-2012 at an estimated valuation of $1.55 billion. Market experts peg their current valuation at upwards of $2.2 billion, after taking into account the appreciation in their values. Mirach, however, says these hotels can get a maximum of $1.67 billion, while the “distressed circumstances” can bring down the value to as low as $700 million. Sharma, who is facing legal lawsuits for a few cases in the US and has reportedly admitted to wrongdoings in the past in a case relating to stealing database, had earlier sought a “formal apology” from Sahara for going back on the deal. PTI