Brunei Sultan bids for jailed tycoon's NY, London hotels: WSJ

[NEW YORK] The Sultan of Brunei has made a bid for New York's Plaza Hotel, Dream Hotel and London's Grosvenor House hotel, the Wall Street Journal's website edition reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the situation.

An investment firm affiliated with Brunei has offered to pay US$2 billion for the three hotels, which are owned by India's Sahara conglomerate, WSJ.com said.

Sahara's chairman, Subrata Roy, has been negotiating a sale of the company's luxury hotels from a makeshift office in prison, having been held for more than five months after failing to appear at a contempt hearing in a long-running dispute over his group's failure to repay billions of dollars to investors who were sold outlawed bonds.