Sebi to auction 30 properties of Rose Valley group worth Rs 409 crore in June

New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday said it will auction 30 properties of Rose Valley group of companies on June 27 at a reserve price of Rs 409 crore in a bid to recover money raised by the firm from the public through illicit schemes.

The properties to go under the hammer include land with building, flats, resort, hotels and amusement park, buildings, plots and land parcels located in West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Tripura, and Bihar, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a notice.

The e-auction will be conducted between 11 am and 1 pm on June 27. The total reserve price of these properties is pegged at Rs 409.02 crore, it added.

The markets watchdog said it has appointed C1 India as the e-auction service provider while it has engaged Quikr Realty to assist it in sale of the properties of Rose Valley.

The Calcutta High Court, in a May 11, 2015 order, set up an Assets Disposal Committee (ADC) to oversee the sale of assets belonging to Rose Valley group to be utilised for repaying the investors.

In September 2023, the court directed Sebi to initiate e-auctions of select Rose Valley properties. Acting on the ADC's instructions, the regulator has now been tasked with proceeding with the auction of these assets.

Going by the notice, bidders may participate in the e-auction online from India or outside. Therefore, the intending purchaser will participate in the e-auction on his own behalf and no third party intervention, like authorised agent/representative, would be permitted.

The successful bidder shall bear the charges/fee payable as per law for conveyance of property such as applicable stamp duties/ additional stamp duty/ transfer charges, registration expenses, fees, etc, for transfer of the property in his/her name, the notice said, adding that all taxes will be borne by the purchaser.

In November last year, Sebi had auctioned 27 properties of Rose Valley group worth Rs 63.26 crore.

Prior to that, in May 2024, Sebi auctioned 22 properties of Rose Valley worth Rs 8.6 crore.

In June 2022, Sebi ordered attachment of bank accounts as well as shares and mutul fund holdings of Rose Valley Hotels and Entertainment Ltd and its then directors to recover investors' dues totalling more than Rs 5,000 crore.

This came after they failed to comply with Sebi directions to refund investors' money.

In November 2017, the regulator had ordered Rose Valley and its then directors to refund thousands of crores to investors who had parked money in holiday membership plans of the group as it declared those schemes as illegal.

The various plans were offered by the firm with a promise of return to qualify as collective investment scheme.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in March 2023, revealed that assets worth around Rs 150 crore were attached under the anti-money laundering law as part of an investigation against the Rose Valley Group.

According to the ED, funds were collected by selling "fake and fabricated"

schemes through a chain of agents located in Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Odisha, Jharkhand and several other states.