In August 2013, representatives of Sahara Group and Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Zoran Stavreski, announced the acquisition of Dzumajlija by an Indian company, owned by controversial businessman Subrata Roy.
According to announcements, Sahara Group was to invest 200 million euros in a three-year period in the agricultural production cooperative "Dzumajlija" and employ a total of 2,000 persons. They planned to procure 20,000 cattle and expected the first dairy products to enter the market within a year, in 2014.
The agricultural production cooperative was to produce 80,000 liters of milk per day, while on annual basis Dzumajlija was supposed to produce 75,000 tons of fodder.
"It is the biggest project, the largest investment in Macedonian agriculture in the last 25 years. The investment of Sahara Group in the Ovcepole region will bring about a revival of the regions of Lozovo, Sveti Nikole and the entire Ovchepole region. During its most operational days in the past, the agricultural production cooperative had managed to create about 500 jobs in agriculture," stated Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance at the time, Zoran Stavreski.
Meanwhile, Indian authorities detained Subrata Roy under the suspicion that his corporation was collecting savings deposits from citizens without authorisation and working outside the bank regulation of India.
Therefore, during 2014, instead of starting with the milk production, Macedonian Ministry of Agriculture had activated Sahara Group’s bank guarantee worth three million euros, which marked the beginning of the end of the investment. The Deputy Prime Minister Stavreski stated that "the Government never said that Sahara Group was going to invest in Macedonia."
Today, the company that was to manage 2,000 employees, has no employed workers and operates with non-current assets amounting to less than 5,000 euros.
At the same time as their investment in the dairy business, Sahara and Subrata Roy announced the construction of an ultra-modern tourist resort on the shore of Lake Ohrid near the Ljubanishta autocamp, as well as funding a large monument of Mother Teresa on the Skopje square.
"The project is very ambitious; it has envisaged to have over 100,000 rooms. Our efforts are not for this project to be an average tourist resort, rather for it to be one of the destinations among the top five to ten in this sector in the world," informed Roy during a press conference in January 2014 in Ohrid.
At the time, Subrata Roy purchased the Slavija hotel in Ohrid and according to media this deal cost him less than five million euros. He planned to turn the hotel into a residential facility for his company in Macedonia.
The project planned for Ohrid was also not realised, while the monument was funded by the Macedonian Government.
The only completed project of Subrata Roy in Macedonia is the so-called Balkan Peace Festival, which was held at the Skopje square in September 2013. Most of the top state officials participated as guests at the festival and the conference that followed, which was also attended by former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.