Builder buys back project in auction

MUMBAI: Builder Niranjan Hiranandani is believed to have won the bid to buy back the sprawling Hiranandani Palace Gardens project in Chennai for Rs 551 crore in an auction carried out by HDFC early this month. The Hiranandani family had defaulted on a Rs 539 crore loan for the 200-acre project.
HDFC had advanced the loan in two tranches to the Chennai project jointly promoted by Hiranandani and his daughter, Priya.The lender had classified the loan as an NPA (non-performing asset).
It is learnt that the builder was also ready to buy back the Hiranandani township project in Panvel for over Rs 800 crore. But some customers who had booked flats here approached the court, which stayed the builder's bid.
A spokesperson for the Hiranandani Group declined to comment beyond saying the transactions were still to be concluded.
Several thousand flat purchasers were left high and dry because of a family dispute, mainly between the father and daughter. Work on both Chennai and Panvel projects was stalled for over a year. The fight between them is on in courts.
The Hiranandanis also found themselves pitted against investment firm Hirco Plc, which had raised Rs 3,000 crore from global investors in 2006 for the two projects. Niranjan Hiranandani was chairman of Hirco before he stepped down in 2010.
The Hirco board dragged both father and daughter to court in the Isle of Man for fraud and other wrongdoing. Hirco said it found cash collections for Panvel and Chennai totalled about 192 million pounds (under Rs 2,000 crore) till November last year. The Chennai and Panvel assets had a value of 556 million pounds (around Rs 5,500 crore).
Last year, TOI had reported that Hiranandani could bid for the projects.
Last year, Hirco chairman David Burton said in the half-yearly statement of the company that progress on the developments appeared somewhat subdued, with only moderate progress in the preceding six months. The company had said in its annual financial statement in September 2012 that the completion of both Chennai and Panvel projects remained at least a decade away.