Sahara welcomes court order on US hotels

New Delhi: The Sahara group welcomed a US court's order that rejected the plea for attachment of its two hotels in New York and said it was "unfairly" dragged into a private dispute between two parties. 

The Supreme Court of the State of New York has rejected a plea by Hong Kong-based JTS Trading Ltd that had sought attachment of Sahara's prized hotels Plaza and Dream Downtown  in the US as part of a lawsuit over a deal that went sour. 

"We welcome the Hon'ble Supreme Court's decision which  understood our claims in the pious light of justice and  protected us from becoming a victim of unscrupulous litigation, which aimed at falsely and unfairly dragging us into a private  dispute between two parties who have had a falling out," a  Sahara group spokesperson said in a statement.  Hong Kong-based JTS Trading had approached the court seeking the attachment as part of its USD 350-million lawsuit  against UAE-based Trinity White City Ventures, Sahara group  and Swiss banking giant UBS over a deal that went sour. 

JTS Trading had filed the suit in June, claiming that it  had a deal under a joint venture with Trinity for a deal of  the hotels and that it was abruptly excluded when Trinity  decided to partner with Sahara.  Sahara however told the court that it was being unfairly  dragged into a private dispute between JTS and Trinity, as it  was a non-party to the dispute.  Sahara claimed JTS had no rights to attach the interests of Sahara's subsidiary non-party entities (Sahara Plaza LLC and Sahara Dreams LLC), which were accepted by the court.  JTS Trading was apparently in a potential joint venture  in a potential bid by Trinity to refinance Sahara's two hotels  in New York and one in London (Grosvenor House). 

Sahara was at one time in discussions with Trinity for a  refinancing deal, but said it had no knowledge of the dealings  between Trinity and JTS. JTS had alleged breach of the prior  joint venture and sought USD 350 million as damages and  attachment of Sahara's two US hotels. The Court however said in its order, dated September 14,  that JTS has failed to establish entitlement to attach the  assets of the non-parties.  While accepting Sahara's contentions in the matter, the  court ordered, "Accordingly, JTS's application for a  pre-judgment order of attachment, and all of JTS's alternate  grounds for relief, must be denied."