Public sector Corporation Bank helped Vadra with generous overdraft
New Delhi, Oct 10: Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra's companies were given generous overdraft by public sector Corporation Bank, says a Business Standard report. The BS report said, the Friends Colony branch of
Sky Light Realty, meanwhile, had taken the Rs 1 crore lent to it by its directors in 2007-08, and in its very first transaction, promptly deposited it with DLF, perhaps for booking flats (which DLF says was done in September 2008).
The following year, armed with Rs 3.5 crore received from Sky Light Hospitality, another Rs 1.5 crore from Carnival, and Rs 15 lakh from Artex, Sky Light Realty went shopping.
It bought land in Hayyatpur for Rs 1 crore, more land in Palwal (both places in Haryana) for Rs 42 lakh, and paid DLF another Rs 2 crore for multiple flat bookings. Some Rs 78 lakh stayed in bank accounts.
By the next year (2009-10), Artex had got back its original loan to Sky Light Hospitality, and it now increased its loan to Sky Light Realty to Rs 2.84 crore.
Sky Light Realty shows the apartment in Aralias as a joint venture with Mr Vadra, valued in Sky Light Realty's books at Rs 89 lakh, while furniture and fixtures in the flat are valued at Rs 94 lakh.
Another seven flats get booked in the neighbouring Magnolias apartment complex, the payment for these being shown as Rs 5.23 crore, while Rs 5.07 crore has been put into DLF's Capital Green project in Delhi.
Some of these numbers were mentioned by Arvind Kejriwal when he raked up the whole issue of Vadra's dealings, last week.
What Kejriwal missed, though, is the balance sheet for the following year (2010-11), in which Sky Light Realty paid a further Rs 8.57 crore for the Aralias flat, making for total payment of Rs 10.4 crore. In its press release, DLF puts the total price of the Aralias flat at Rs 11.9 crore, while the rough cost of the seven Magnolias flats would be in excess of Rs 40 crore (all of which might not have been paid as yet, since the flats are not ready).
Sky Light Hospitality, meanwhile, increased its loan to Sky Light Realty from Rs 3.5 crore to Rs 6.61 crore in 2009-10, the money being shown as being for a joint venture (presumably, the DLF flats).
It also gave Rs 2.05 crore to Blue Breeze, and Rs 2 crore to yet another Vadra firm, Real Earth Estates.
The company's biggest investment, though, was in Saket Courtyard Hospitality, its value after booking losses being Rs 31.7 crore.
While Sky Light Hospitality has accumulated losses (but only because the profits on the Manesar land were yet to be booked till 2010-11), Sky Light Realty has prospered; it had Rs 6.65 crore sloshing around in bank current accounts, its income from realty in 2010-11 was Rs 16.5 crore, accumulated reserves were Rs 12 crore, and it paid Rs 1.8 crore as tax on profits.
All that would be small beer compared to the current market value of the properties acquired.
The Aralias and Magnolias flats together would fetch Rs 130 crore or thereabouts, and by DLF's calculation Mr Vadra's share in the hotel project would be in excess of Rs 50 crore.
His total asset base from the two Sky Light companies — all made by rolling over transactions with DLF, and helped by real estate value appreciation — would be in the vicinity of Rs 200 crore, made in five years with initial capital deployed of about Rs 6 crore.
The BS report says, If Mr Vadra had to count his friends in the real estate business, they would be Corporation Bank, the Haryana government and DLF.
who is at the centre of a controversy over his property dealings with realty giant DLF and others, began investing in real estate five years ago, in 2007-08. He was already a wealthy man by then, not a struggling businessman who could scrape only a few lakh rupees together as capital for his new real estate ventures.
His Artex export firm had the wherewithal to lend Rs 4.45 crore to one of his new firms (Sky Light Hospitality) in 2008-09. The previous year, the company's directors (there were only two, Mr Vadra and his mother Maureen) had lent Rs 1 crore to another of his real estate firms (Sky Light Realty).
Apart from being wealthy, he must also have had excellent relations with Corporation Bank, whose Friends Colony branch (located close to Mr Vadra's companies' offices in the capital) gave an overdraft of Rs 7.94 crore to Sky Light Hospitality. The newly incorporated company at the time had total resources of Rs 1 lakh, being its paid-up share capital.
Three crucial decisions gave Mr Vadra a flying start in his real estate foray: the generous overdraft from Corporation Bank, the timely approval from the Haryana government for commercial development of his land and DLF's decision to buy it at an enhanced value and to advance him most of the purchase price for an extended period.
Robert Vadra's principal real estate companies:
Sky Light Hospitality
Sky Light Realty
His other real estate companies:
Real Earth Estates
Blue Breeze Trading
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