Imbecile Raj Thackeray makes a killing in land deal

Raj's firm made Rs 300cr by selling stake in mill?
Nauzer Bharucha, TNN 15 November 2009, 09:16am IST

MUMBAI: As a politician, MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s reason for existence may be his avowed love for the Marathi language. But in his avatar as a businessman, money’s the language he appears to be most conversant with.

The politician who doubles up as a builder has made a killing by selling his stake in Kohinoor Mill No. 3 at Shivaji Park. Thackeray’s business partner and Matoshree Infrastructure chairman Rajan Shirodkar told TOI on Saturday that they exited the project six months ago by offloading their share at a profit of Rs 62 crore.

However, bankers and real estate insiders believe the actual profit might be considerably larger, given the prevailing rates. Matoshree chairman revealed that five banks funded the consortium that bought 4.8 acre Kohinoor property for Rs 421 crore in mid-2005 — at almost Rs 88 crore per acre. Thackeray is a director in Matoshree Infrastructure, his other partners being Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi’s Kohinoor Group and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services.

When Matoshree got out of the project some time in April, the property, including land and construction, was valued at Rs 1,050 crore, according to Shirodkar.

Each of the three partners held an equal, one-third share in the project, he added. Assuming that Matoshree staked claim to one third of the appreciation in value from the original purchase price of Rs 421 crore (that is, Rs 629 crore), the margin may have been more substantial than Rs 62 crore, according to property specialists.

Explaining why Matoshree exited the project, Shirodkar said, ‘‘We had planned for a mall but later realised that it would not work at all, especially after the market crashed and lease rentals in malls came down from Rs 600 a square foot a month to under Rs 200/sf.’’

‘‘After we completed the basement work, we realised that it would be tough to manage a mall with such low rentals in the island city,’’ said Shirodkar. The construction work had come to a halt for several months because of the change in plans. Manohar Joshi’s son, Unmesh, head of the Kohinoor Group, told this newspaper on Saturday that project plans had now been reworked for a single commercial tower. Sources said that a number of local businessmen from the financially powerfulKutchi community had initially invested money in the Kohinoor Millproject.

In 2005, when NTC put this mill on the block, virtually every big builder in Mumbai and Delhi had shown interest. But, instead of fierce fight that many expected, only three builders turned up when bids were opened. This had led to raised eyebrows. The two other bidders were Varun Industries (bid of Rs 411.11 crore) and Akruti Nirman (Rs 355 crore).

Interestingly, barely months after the sale in 2005, Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam had alleged that funds stashed in Madagascar were used. Manohar Joshi then countered stating that it was financed by banks and private investors.

The imbecile Raj Thackeray may not know or want to speak Hindi, but he sure knows how to make money in land deals like any other politician in the Hindi speaking state or rather like any other politician anywhere in India.
In Bengal one politician , who is no more with us, was the promoter's favourite and another CPM leader helped the Vedika group acquire land with muscle power in Salt Lake.
I am sure in all states in India, the nexus between politician, police, criminals and promoters.
I would request our readers to hi-light such nexus.
This gang of four help each other in dispossessing genuine tenants/owners of valuable land at a cheap price and then make a killing by selling at an astronomical price.
The Maoist agitation is one of the results of that where adivasis have been dispossessed of their land by rich industrialists with political support.