Atul Shah Properties: Former Nakumatt chief executive officer Atul Shah has given up the fight to stop the auctioning of a Sh. 2 billion property by the Bank of Africa.
According to a report that appeared in the Business Daily on Monday, Mr. Shah last month quietly sought the nod of the Registrar of the Court of Appeal to withdraw the suit. The report says that he did so through his company Collogne Investments.
Mr. Shah had gone to the Court of Appeal after the High Court gave Bank of Africa the green light to auction the property registered under the name of Collogne Investments on August 24 to recover Sh. 700 million given that was loaned to Nakumatt.
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While the withdrawal now paves way for the auctioning of the property, it opens a fresh battle over how the auction will be carried out. This is because KCB and two other banks have been claiming rights to auction the property. Apparently, Mr. Shah had used the same property to secure loans from four different banks.
“Nakumatt owes StanChart and DTB Bank a combined Sh. 4.5 billion and court documents show that they are also eyeing the Sh. 2 billion property,” the report said. “Regulatory filings indicate that Nakumatt owed DTB Bank Sh. 3.6 billion, Standard Chartered Sh. 900 million, KCB Sh. 1.9 billion, Bank of Africa Sh. 328 million, UBA Sh. 126 million and GT Bank Sh. 104 million.”
These banks have been identifying properties owned and associated with Shah for auctioning to recover the outstanding debts. These properties include shopping malls, office blocks and prime land in Nairobi, Mombasa and Nakuru.
At the same time, Shah and his fallen retail chain are under investigation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations over alleged theft and money laundering. Atul Shah Properties.
