A UK multifamily office and two Middle Eastern partners submitted a US$1.3 billion bid for London’s Grosvenor House hotel and majority stakes in New York’s Plaza and Dream Downtown hotels to majority owner Sahara India Pariwar, controlled by once-jailed Indian businessman Subrata Roy, Bloomberg reported.
The bidders “are committing our own capital resources to acquire all three” hotels, Jesdev Saggar, managing director of the UK multifamily office, 3 Associates Capital Management, wrote in an e-mail. “We now await the sellers’ acceptance of our bid.”
The all-equity offer, led by 3 Associates, was filed on Tuesday with India’s Supreme Court and the Securities and Exchange Board of India, according to Saggar. If successful, the new owners plan to upgrade the hotels and hold them for the long term, he said. The two Middle Eastern partners in the bid are family funds in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Saggar said.
The pound’s depreciation following the Brexit vote led to the offer, which would be enough to clear the debt on the assets and could resolve a two-year limbo over ownership of the hotels.
The New York hotels are cross-collateralised with the Grosvenor House property in a loan made by Bank of China that was sold to billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben after Sahara defaulted in 2015. The Reubens earlier this year granted the Sahara-led owners forbearance to try to find a buyer.
Grosvenor House, a luxury hotel operated under the JW Marriott brand, is located next to Hyde Park in London’s Mayfair neighborhood.
The bid was originally reported by the Financial Times.