MUMBAI: The Sahara Group of jailed Indian tycoon Subrata Roy said today it had reached a deal with Britain’s billionaire Reuben brothers to avert the sale of three luxury hotels overseas.

Roy, who was jailed for contempt in March 2014, had tried to sell the properties — the Plaza Hotel and the Dream Downtown in New York and London’s Grosvenor House — to raise the $1.6 billion he needs to secure bail.

The Sahara Group said David and Simon Reuben were ‘in the final stage’ of negotiations to take over the company’s loan portfolio.

The court had ordered Roy to repay INR 200 billion to millions of small savers through a bond scheme that regulators had declared illegal. Sahara has always insisted it was only helping poor and mainly rural investors through the scheme.