Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Sahara Group : A Bubble The Media Avoids?

The Sahara group, headed by Subrata Roy Sahara, is a large diversified business group with interests in Finance, Media, Entertainment, Real Estate, and till sometime ago Aviation, besides many other businesses. The group appears to be well connected to politicians, film stars, sports-persons and, of course, the media.  The group also sponsors the Indian cricket team. With a humble asset base of around Rs.1500/- in 1978, the group is now worth billions of dollars. That would make an amazing and inspirational story. But it’s a story that the media or Sahara hasn’t really made public. The journeys of a Dhirubhai or Narayanamurthy are pretty much folklore. The story of Subrata Roy Sahara, at best, is intriguing. Is there a bubble around the corner that might burst, that the media is avoiding?

Much of the group’s funding, activities and finances are shrouded in mystery and not much is known in the public domain. Recently SEBI had banned the group from raising public funds. In its order SEBI mentioned: It is crucial to probe into how the companies could have raised huge amount of money running into thousands of crores without conforming to prudent disclosure norms that govern public issues. Prima facie, it appears that in the guise of private placements, these companies are rampantly tapping huge amount of money by not disclosing the source of funds by circumventing the applicable framework of law.
Sahara, of course, protested and the Allahabad High Court stayed the SEBI ban on December 13, 2010. Not too long ago, on August 21, 2010, Outlook magazine carried a story on consumers facing problems with Sahara’s housing schemes and how buyers had complained about Sahara not disclosing complete information in their offerings. A blogger tries a bit more to understand the mysteries surrounding this group. And there are also happy investors who claim to have higher earnings on their deposits with the group than regular banks would offer.

In the current season of scams it is important that most financial mysteries are looked into under a microscope. If nothing else, to doubly ensure public at large is not subjected to another mishap. This is not to suggest in any way  that Sahara group might be a scam, far from it. This only seeks to unravel the mysteries for the benefit of investors and stake holders. At the very least it could enlighten people on a business model that might help inspire others.

Will the media now follow the money of the Sahara group?


  1. High Court stays Sebi’s ban on Sahara
    Can Sebi force company to get listed, asks HC


    Lucknow: A division bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday stayed the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) order passed on November 24, restricting the Sahara India Group from soliciting funds from the public.

    Fixing January 12 as the next date of hearing, the bench of Justice DP Singh and Justice VK Dixit asked the Sahara India Group to furnish necessary information to the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Kanpur, and directed the Central government and RoC to submit a status report after taking into consideration the interest of shareholders.

    The company could now continue to take deposits as per consent granted by the RoC. On December 1, the bench had reserved its order, saying that the Central government and Sebi would not coerce the Sahara Group. On Monday, the court said it would adjudicate whether Sebi had got a right to interfere with affairs of unlisted company.

    The court further said that the question whether Sebi could force a company to get listed also required consideration.

    “Prima facie, since the petitioners are not a listed company and the matter is under investigation by the Central government, the case for interim relief is made out,” observed the bench, admitting the writ petition of Sahara for hearing.

    After Sebi issued its November 24 ban order, Sahara had challenged it in the HC. The company based its case on the sole ground that the RoC had sought the said information and the matter was pending with it. Pending inquiry before the RoC, Sebi could not intervene into the issue and its action was without jurisdiction and mala fide, it had maintained. It also pleaded that since it was not a listed company therefore Sebi did not have the right to seek information from it.

  2. Sahara India has been providing its services to our country since the past 33 years, their only aim has been to develop our country.. they are a very honest and trustworthy company.. and i would not think twice before investing with them again.

  3. Their business agenda is very simple..takes black money from different party, party leader and convert that to white through the so called small investor money..In the filling to SEBI sahara said their 90% of investor out of 30 million, don't have bank account for NEFT settlement of their balances. When sahara comeup with their IPO, we did lot of study on their model and conducted lot of interviews with lot of Inside people at sahara..They takes black money - convert to white and invest to different area. Only thing Sahara never was able to generate profit through any of their business ever..you take airlines, news paper, channel, Real estate, any sector they moved in. So ultimately they are running in losses but due to continuous flow of money we can not see that..Its like One the flood stop then only we can see sahara was nacked

    1. I think bhushan is very right.
      I have also made investments into Sahara but after the SEBI case i have stopped that.
      and then i got to know the real face of SAHARA. These idiots are not returning my money saying that it will only be returned after the maturity date.although their pollicy is now banned by SEBI.
      These frauds have opened a new scheme now and transferred all our investments into that. And they are showing to the court that they have returned the money to their investors which is a lie.

      SAHARA is a big fraud. But i think it has got many of the politicians money involved in it, that's why everyone is silent.
      SAHARA is like swiss bank of India.

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