Pakistani politician’s London mansion becomes the talk of the town - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
LONDON: A mansion on a super-expensive street nicknamed ‘Billionaire’s row’ has become the UK’s most valuable repossession after going on the market for £30 million.
The house, named Dryades, is located in the centre of The Bishops Avenue, a leafy street in northern London.
But the property, owned by a Pakistani political dynasty, has been seized by Deutsche Bank after a lengthy High Court battle, a report in Daily Mail’s online edition said. The 8,000 square-foot home has now been put on the market by the bank for a staggering £30m, but plans are already in motion to knock the existing house down and replace it with a giant new home.
Planning permission has been granted by Barnet Council for a 46,000square-foot replacement, which could more than triple the present value of the property.
The proposed home would boast 21 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms and 12 reception rooms when completed.
It will also have an acre and a half of gardens, despite being minutes from the busiest parts of London.
The replacement for Dryades will have a staggering 63-metre frontage, and plans are in place for staff quarters, an orangery and a huge centrally-positioned staircase which is reached by walking through a grand vestibule.
Other facilities will include an underground level containing a car park, swimming pool, sauna, gym, steam room, billiards room, cinema, bar and bowling alley.
Its value could approach £100m mark when completed - making it one of Britain’s most valuable new residences.
The property was bought for around £12m in 2005 by the family of Pakistan’s former privatisation minister Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan as they looked to invest in the London property market.
In 2007 it was used to secure a £50m loan with Deutsche Bank, but a lengthy ‘debt and possession’ dispute between both parties resulted in the family losing the home earlier this year.
The receivers, Eddisons, has appointed the Knight Frank estate agency to sell Dryades, with the property advertised for £29.5m. It is currently boarded up and its gardens are unkempt.
Grant Alexson, head of Knight Frank’s Hampstead office, called Dryades ‘an exceptional opportunity’.
He said: “The house, which is currently quite modest, is set in 1.5acres of prime land on The Bishops Avenue.
“The value is in the planning permission. A piece of land like this is worth a lot more if you can build on it.
“It would be the largest home on The Bishops Avenue and one of the largest new homes in the UK.“It is an exceptional opportunity to buy one of the finest pieces of land on The Bishops Avenue and it is likely to appeal to an international client.
“It has just come onto the market and there is already a lot of interest.”
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Mis-selling of investment products in UK...Political family embroiled in £100m suit against global bank
LONDON: Pakistan’s former privatisation minister Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan and his father Senator Gulzar Ahmed Khan are embroiled in a lengthy and intricate £100 million legal battle with a global investment bank over a complex investment on a property portfolio that includes some of the most exclusive and pricey addresses in the UK.
The wealthy political family has countered Deutsche Bank (Suisse), one of the world’s largest, with a £100 million legal case alleging the mis-selling of investment products and mismanagement after the bank initially issued a £50 million lawsuit against them.
At the centre of the dispute are apartments worth around £40 million in Knightsbridge and a luxurious home on Bishop’s Avenue billed the ‘Billionaire’s Row’ because of its reputation to attract the likes of super rich from around the world, including Arab princes, Russian oligarchs and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.
The Khan family’s detached property, which expands over two acres, would have become the third largest private residence in London with a potential value of £100 million after it obtained planning permission and financing and was due to be redeveloped by Savills Capital, a high end upmarket real estate services provider.
But the Geneva-based investment arm of the bank claims that the exclusive property has devalued by 40 percent, which makes the portfolio worthless than the original value — triggering a clause that puts the family into default position.
Court papers lodged by the Khan family state: “Valuers did not set foot inside the properties and neither did they request access. These unsupported valuations were only drive-by valuations which were used to give a ‘fire sale’ value rather than a fair market value.”
The ‘ongoing case’ between the two parties where the Khan family asserts the bank incorrectly sold them structured products, which are market linked investments, mishandled their account and misrepresented them is being viewed as a landmark in contractual disputes between major banks and customers as the judge extended the counterclaim to include all of Deutsche Bank rather than just its investment arm Deutsche Bank (Suisse) before the case goes to trial in January 2013.
The family believes this is significant because it gives them scope to apply for more documents, call more witnesses and say that the people who advised them on the disputed loan deal are employees of Deutsche Bank AG — the main bank to which the Deutsche Bank (Suisse) didn’t put up too much resistance.
“This decision by the judge has a lot of significance as the Geneva-based arm of the bank sidesteps their obligations to compliance and claim that they are unregulated inferring — it does not matter where the money came from but then they sell clients regulated products from other international branches as has happened in this case,” said Rashad Yaqoob, an independent private equity real estate executive who is acting as an expert witness for the family. “This decision has certainly strengthened the family’s case and put on the bank on the back foot as the last thing any bank wants is to have the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to get involved and open its books.”
Respected financial QC Raymond Cox, of the Fountain Court chambers, recently highlighted it as legal test case.The FSA fined DB Mortgages, a division of Deutsche Bank, £840,000 and ordered it to repay £1.5 million to customers last year for what it deemed irresponsible lending practices and unfair treatment of customers in arrears.
The litigation has been brought against four men, including Senator Gulzar Ahmed Khan, Waqar Ahmed Khan, Raza Sultana and Senator Ammar Ahmad Khan, who was recently declared one of the richest PPP senators with Rs1.152 billion assets, whereas his father is on top of the list of the poorest senators with net liabilities of Rs197.6 million.
Despite being present at the hearing, Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan declined to comment when approached by The News at the Rolls Buildings commercial court, which is one of the largest specialist centres for the resolution of financial, business and property litigation anywhere in the world.The full trial is expected to take place in January 2013.
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Pakistani politican fights Deutsche effort to repossess London property - Telegraph
One of Pakistan’s best known politicians is to appear in a British court to try to stop Deutsche Bank from re-possessing a personal collection of London’s most expensive properties.
In a highly-charged case expected to start tomorrow,
Waqar Ahmed Khan, a Pakistani Senator, is fighting Deutsche’s plan to re-possess six Knightsbridge flats and a house on Bishops Avenue in a bid to recoup a £50m loan.
In a counter-claim that will be heard at the same time, Senator Khan, and four members of his family, argue that Deutsche withheld £11m of an agreed loan which prevented them developing the properties. The Khans, who had planned to build a house that would be one of the biggest in London, are seeking damages of around £60m from Deutsche.
The case, which is “just a debt reclaim”, according to a Deutsche source, centres on Draydes, a five-bedroom mansion on Bishops Avenue, a north London street nicknamed Billionaires Row whose residents include the Sultan of Brunei and Lakshmi Mittal.
According to court documents, the Khans bought the house in 2007 with an intention to “maximise its value by demolishing the existing house situated on the site and build a new, very significantly larger house within the curtilage of the site”. The Khans say the opportunity was brought to them by Deutsche private banker Nassim Ahmad, a “close trusted adviser and senior banker to the Khan Family”. Mr Ahmad and Senator Khan, who has held several government posts, had been close for 20 years; in 1999 the pair went to Mecca together for the Umrah pilgrimage.
In 2005 the Khan family bought six apartments in a luxury London development called The Knightsbridge using loans from different banks. The family says Mr Ahmad offered them loans totally £66m to refinance their properties, owned via special purpose vehicles, and move the portfolio to Deutsche. Part of the cash was earmarked to redevelop Draydes, a project that was expected to cost between £10m and £15m but create a house worth around £80m - enough to repay the entire loan.
The loan was agreed in August 2007 and £50m was advanced within days, which allowed the Khans to refinance their properties, but the remaining amount was withheld.
In the documents, the Khans claim that Deutsche “breached its contractural obligations in failing to advance the full amount which it had contracted to lend, with the result that the Khan Family were unable to undertake development projects which would have yielded a substantial profit.” As a result, the Khans say they have also been forced to “liquidate certain investments and incur losses on the early redemption of those investments.”
The case is expected to run for three weeks. Deutsche declined to comment.
Stop creating multiple topics on him.
And multiple accounts too, I am assuming
