Siva Ventures (SVL), the investment arm of the NRI businessman C Sivasankaran promoted Sterling Infotech Group owns a 49% stake in Sahara Group’s Aamby Valley, which was floated to develop the Aamby Valley City, reports The Economic Times.
Siva Ventures had prepared an information memorandum last month when raised Rs 435 crore through private placement of non-convertible debentures, which says that SVL has a significant presence in infrastructure and township building business by way of 49% ownership in the equity share capital of Aamby Valley.
Sahara Group continues to hold the majority stake of 51% in Aamby Valley while Sterling Infotech Group is a private equity investor in the company. The report also said that it has learnt Sahara borrowing a significant amount from Sivasankaran’s group by pledging shares of Aamby Valley.
Though the date and the timing of the deal are not known, an estimate is that the deal could have taken place in 2007 when Sahara Group sold out its airline business to Jet Airways.
The report further says that according to the memorandum, Siva Ventures has taken 171 timber chalets in Aamby Valley on lease for 997 years, valued at around Rs 15 crore each.
Aamby Valley City, which is Sahara Group’s flagship real estate project, has been planned over 10,000 acres land. The project has been positioned as an upmarket hill township and is expected to be one of the top five destinations in the world. Russian tennis player Anna Kournikova, Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai own villas in Aamby Valley City.
Last month, Sivasankaran had acquired a 51% stake in Chennai-based telecom firm S Tel for around around Rs 1,150 crore.