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Hong Kong Firm Seeks $350M in Messy Plaza Snafu

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[Photo by Osugi / Shutterstock.com]

More exciting finance drama at the always dramatic Plaza: a Hong Kong-based investment firm, JTS Trading Ltd., has accused three companies of squeezing it out of a deal to buy a majority stake in the Plaza, along with Chelsea's Dream Hotel and Grosvenor House in London. This whole thing is a real tangled mess, so try to bear with us.

According to the Observer, earlier this year, JTS entered an agreement with Trinity White City Ventures Limited, a private trust based in the United Arab Emirates, to buy the three properties, with JTS contributing $850 million and TWCV contributing $250 million in equity capital. However, according to the suit, TWCV used JTS to open the door for negotiations, and then made its own deal with Sahara India Pariwar, the Indian company that controls the properties, and who you may remember is selling the hotels to help finance the bail of its imprisoned chairman, Subrata Roy. The latest agreement between TWCV and Sahara entails one-year loans of $1.5 billion and the purchase of $882 million in debt.

Just a few weeks ago, Monaco-based billionaires David and Simon Reuben paid $800 million to acquire the debt on all three properties, effectively making this a veritable Model UN of messy financial sagas.
· Investor Seeks $350M for Getting Squeezed Out of Plaza, Dream Downtown Hotel Buys [CO]
· All Plaza coverage [Curbed]

The Plaza

Central Park South, Manhattan, NY 10019 Visit Website

Dream Hotel

355 West 16th Street, Manhattan, NY 10011 Visit Website