Sahara cos stocks rebound after early losses

Stocks of listed Sahara companies fell during trading on Thursday but recovered to close in the green. While the Sahara HousingFina Corporation stock plunged 19.11% to a 52-week low of Rs 44, it ended the day with a 0.18% gain. Similarly, the Sahara One Media and Entertainment stock, which declined 4.81% intra-day to a 52-week low of Rs 82.1, gained nearly 5% at the close.

The two listed companies from the Sahara stable don’t add up to much in value compared to the huge financial muscle that the group enjoys. Sahara One and Sahara HousingFina had a combined market capitalization of Rs 233 crore (based on their closing prices on BSE on Thursday).

The value of promoters’ stake in these companies stood at Rs 173.3 crore. “Listed companies from the Sahara group have an insignificant presence in the market. So, there would not be much in terms of material impact,” says Kishor P Ostwal, managing director, CNI Research, an equities research provider. Revenues and profits from the listed companies are also miniscule compared to the size of the Sahara group. Sahara One reported revenues of Rs 45.57 crore and a net profit of Rs 1.45 crore in October-December. It had revenues of only Rs 110 crore in 2011-12.

Sahara HousingFina had revenues of a mere Rs. 4.87 crore in October-December and net profit of just Rs 49.35 lakh. It had revenues of only Rs 19.77 crore in 2011-12. Though there have been rumours of a sell-out in a few equity schemes managed by the Sahara mutual fund (MF), its assets under management (AUM) are too small to offer any succour to the parent group.
COURTESY:
M Allirajan TNN
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/02/15&PageLabel=25&EntityId=Ar02507&ViewMode=HTML

Sahara Group Realty investors left in lurch

New Delhi: It’s the real estate investors and customers of two Sahara group companies - Sahara Housing Investment Corporation (SHICL) and Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) - who stand to lose the most as a result of the Sebi order.

The chances of completion of the projects that these two companies had undertaken are not very high since SEBI has attached the properties, said a real estate expert on condition of anonymity. The Sahara group had sold a number of projects in cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Mohali. Customers who invested in these projects are going to be adversely impacted. The group is said to have a land bank of nearly 27,000 acres across the country.

Another real estate expert said that since most of the recoverable investment of the group is in real estate Sebi will sell them to repay outstanding dues of bondholders. Only after repaying bondholders, the money will be used for investors in the real estate projects. This process will take a long time to complete and investors will suffer.

Over a period of time, the group has created huge assets in the real estate sector. So far, the group has launched housing projects in 19 cities. During June 2012, the group had launched 10 integrated township projects in 10 cities on over 900 acres of land. The towns in which the group had launched projects included Pune, Aurangabad, Jodhpur, Gwalior, Bareilly, Solapur, Porbandar, Katni, Kashipur and Cuttack. Sahara has also launched seven projects, which the group claimed, are already under construction, in Lucknow, Jaipur, Indore, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Satna and Coimbatore.

The group is also implementing a mega city premium project called Ambi Valley near Pune. A large number of investors are understood to have invested in these projects. The group had also launched a new affordable housing brand called Sahara Swapna City that is to be built on smaller land parcels across 360 cities, the group claimed. An investment of Rs 500-600 crore would be required for each Sahara City Homes project, while the affordable homes project will require nearly Rs 100-125 crore, which are normally financed through customer advances and bank funding.

No loan exposure to Sahara: SBI
Mumbai: State Bank of India has said that it holds around Rs 800 crore of Sahara group in the form of deposits but does not have any loan exposure. The bank said that its operations would not be impacted if the deposits were to be withdrawn. Other public sector banks also said that they do not have any loan exposure to the group. TNN
COURTESY:
Prabhakar Sinha TNN
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/02/15&PageLabel=25&EntityId=Ar02505&ViewMode=HTML