The InterContinental Hotel has shut down its operations in Kenya. The hotel has also sacked all employees. The hotel’s general manager Oliver Geyer told employees in a notice that all workers are now redundant and that it would terminate its Nairobi hotel lease.
The hotel is associated with the Moi family. According to a recent report that appeared in the Daily Nation, the late Moi “initially owned a 19.3 per cent stake in Intercontinental Hotel before upping its shareholding to 53 per cent in 2018. This essentially gave the Moi family a majority shareholding of the iconic hotel.” The family acquired the stake through Sovereign Group which bought 5,874,391 shares.
The InterContinental Hotel was already struggling before the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. Last year, it was declared technically insolvent since it could not service its debts that stood at Sh. 717 million.
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“InterContinental Hotels Corporation Limited is for operational reasons, considering a permanent closure of the Intercontinental Nairobi and winding up all its operations in the Republic of Kenya,” read a notice from the management.
The InterContinental Hotels Corporation has been running and managing the 389-room InterContinental Hotel Nairobi under a 99-year lease since April 1967.
Shareholders of InterContinental Nairobi have previously included the Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Group (33.8 per cent), the Development Bank of Kenya 12.99 per cent stake, government of Kenya 33.83 per cent stake.