The amount of debt troubled retailer Tuskys Supermarket owes its creditors has finally been revealed. In an ongoing liquidation suit, it has been revealed that Tuskys Supermarket owes creditors Sh. 19.6 billion.
Astonishingly, the assets owned by Tuskys can only cover payments of Sh. 6.67 billion of the debts which is equivalent to 34 percent of the money owed to unsecured creditors.
This huge amount has placed it at nearly ten times the Sh. 2.1 billion the retailer is seeking from a strategic investor. However, it is not clear if the retailer has managed to secure an investor or the claim of finding an investor has been part of an elaborate public relations plan.
In early December, Tuskys was given up to Christmas day to reveal the identity of the mystery offshore investor seeking to buy it out or have it wound up.
The retailer has been rejecting a creditors’ petition in court to reveal the identity of the fund based in the Cayman Islands tax-haven.
The Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) in early December 2021 said that Tuskys went quiet and failed to reveal the identity of the offshore investor more than 16 months after the retailer announced a financing deal.
“They came and told us they were getting a strategic investor and I never saw them again,” Wang’ombe Kariuki, the director-general of the CAK said. “But at least in terms of our intervention we were able to recover above Sh. 2.5 billion for about 250 suppliers and I can say this is not the same situation that happened during Nakumatt.”
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Tuskys fortunes have fallen rapidly over the past two years, within which the retailer has gone from 53 stores to less than seven outlets operating amid stock-outs.
Its collapse has been widely blamed on poor management, rapid expansion and a vicious fights among family members who own stakes in the retailer.