NEW DELHI, July 23: The arrest of real estate magnate and chairman of Ansals group Sushil Ansal and his son, Pranav Ansal, here on Wednesday may put the group's fortunes in doldrums.The group is involved in several capital intensive projects. The Ansals have three public companies listed on the stock exchanges - Ansal Properties, Ansal Buildwell and Ansal Housing & Construction. The arrest of the Ansals has also put a question mark on the future of these widely-held companies.One of the group's major projects is a 225-room five-star hotel being set up here in collaboration with US-based international hotel chain Marriott. It is not known if Marriott will have a re-look at its decision to join hands with Ansals in the wake of adverse publicity the group has got in the last one month due to the Uphaar cinema fire tragedy.Ansal's arrest, though expected, has sent shock waves in the real estate and construction community.The Ansals group has dominated the capital's real estate scenario, constructing most of the buildings in Connaught Place, and giving stiff competition to comparatively new entrants such as DLF, Unitech and Som Datt.A real estate developer told The Indian Express: "If the management of a building is irresponsible and a fire occurs, how can the builder be brought to book?"He, however, admitted that the arrest will make the builders more careful in future over installing fire safety equipment in their buildings.The Rajdhani Builders Association, a conclave of the Capital's real estate development companies, refused to comment on the arrest.A representative of the association, which has the Ansals group as a member, said the case was a legal one and he had no comments to make. The association was deliberating on the future course of action, he added.Another major project is a shopping complex at Andrews Gunj, a posh locality in Delhi. The Ansals had purchased land from Housing & Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) for Rs 160 crore last year.The Ansals are also developing a number of residential properties on the outskirts of Delhi, notably in Gurgaon, Haryana and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.The group shelved two public issues amounting to Rs 108 crore in January this year. They had cited slackness in the capital market for dropping the public offers. The fresh equity was to be utilised for the hotel project and the Andrews Gunj project.The Ansals group's flagship, Ansal Properties & Industries Limited, registered net sales and income of Rs.84.45 crore for the six-month period ended March 1997 as compared to Rs.56.33 crore recorded during the same period of the previous year. The net profit of the company for the second-half of 1996-97 was marginally higher at Rs.6.95 crore as against Rs 6.37 crore achieved during the corresponding period in 1995-96.
