Sanjeev Gupta sells Dubai mansion as his business woes mount
Palm Jumeirah villa sold last month for $11.8mn as part of Liberty Steel was placed in compulsory administration
British steel industrialist Sanjeev Gupta has sold one of his residences in Dubai, cashing in part of his property portfolio at a difficult juncture for his business empire.
Gupta last month sold his four-bedroom, 683-square-metre villa on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah to an unknown buyer for Dh43.5mn ($11.8mn), according to people familiar with the sale and property records reviewed by the Financial Times. A spokesperson for Gupta declined to comment.
Gupta has amassed a collection of trophy homes around the world even as his industrial empire has faced severe financial difficulties. His property portfolio stretches from the UK to the United Arab Emirates to Australia.
Gupta sold the Dubai property to free up capital to put into his UK business, one of the people said. Last month, part of his Liberty Steel business was placed into compulsory liquidation, with the UK government preparing to fund its operations and pay the salaries of its nearly 1,500 employees across several sites in the north of England.
The ruling last month in the High Court in London stripped away one of the linchpins of Gupta’s GFG Alliance, the conglomerate in which Liberty Steel sits. GFG has been beset by legal claims and criminal probes since the 2021 collapse of its main lender Greensill Capital. GFG denies any wrongdoing.
Gupta has lost control of several businesses over the past year. In May his Singapore-based holding company Liberty House Group was placed into judicial management — a local process whereby courts appoint independent managers to restructure an ailing company — after a court rejected a proposal from the metals magnate to make what the judge called a “minuscule” payment to creditors equivalent to 1 per cent of their $4.2bn of outstanding claims.
In February, South Australia took control of Gupta’s Whyalla steelworks and forced it into administration over unpaid bills and alleged under-investment.
Gupta bought the Dubai house not long after the 2008 Emirati property crash, paying a bargain price of between £1mn and £2mn, the FT previously reported. Palm Jumeirah is an artificial archipelago developed in the 2000s at the height of the emirate’s first property boom.
The house is located on a “frond” of the palm-shaped development populated by mansions, where villas have beach access and many feature swimming pools. Holiday lets cost as much as $2,900 a night, while two larger properties listed for sale have asking prices of Dh60mn and Dh72mn.
Gupta has been seeking to offload other assets in Dubai, according to people familiar with the matter, including a much larger house on the tip of one of the Palm’s fronds.
The 16 palatial villas at the end of these fronds are some of the most sought-after and expensive properties in Dubai, offering unobstructed ocean views.
Gupta struck a deal to purchase the larger villa in 2021, months after Greensill collapsed, according to several people familiar with the transaction. The metals magnate last year listed it as his primary residence in documents relating to a proposed restructuring of one of his steel businesses.
Gupta renovated that home at substantial cost in recent years, according to people familiar with the property. The house also has a dedicated whisky room, according to one person who has visited.
Gupta renamed the property “Jahama”, a contraction of his three children’s first names that the magnate has used on other properties, according to people familiar with the matter and a photo seen by the FT.
Gupta’s other properties include a £42mn mansion in London’s exclusive Belgrave Square, which he bought in 2020 around the time his UK businesses began drawing hundreds of millions of pounds in government-guaranteed Covid loans, and an estate in Wales.