Auctioneers find ex-Nakumatt CEO’s Nairobi villa buyer

 

Former Nakumatt CEO Atul Shah. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By BONFACE OTIENO
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SUMMARY

• The KCB Group, through Phillips International Auctioneers, said an interested individual had sealed a deal with the lender to take up the four-bedroom villa with a servant’s quarter.
• The home in Nairobi’s Lavington was put up for sale in July, barely three months after the High Court dismissed a petition seeking to overturn the forced sale by KCB Group to recover the debt.

Auctioneers have found a buyer for a high-end home repossessed from former chief executive officer of the fallen retail giant Nakumatt, Atul Shah over a Sh2 billion debt.

The KCB Group , through Phillips International Auctioneers, said an interested individual had sealed a deal with the lender to take up the four-bedroom villa with a servant’s quarter.

The home in Nairobi’s Lavington was put up for sale in July, barely three months after the High Court dismissed a petition seeking to overturn the forced sale by KCB Group to recover the debt.

“There is an individual who has entered into a deal with the bank to buy the house,” a representative of Phillips International Auctioneers told the Business Daily Thursday declining to give more details.

“The buyer is willing to raise the Sh30 million we were looking for when we floated the house for sale in August.”

The property known as LR No. 5/134 (IR No. 49802) is easily identified as House number 3 located at Elite Gardens Estate in Muthangari.

The title is held on a leasehold interest for a term of 45 years with effect from September 1, 1989.

The property is a four-bedroom villa with a domestic servant quarters and a semi-permanent generator room.

The auctioneer was demanding that interested bidders should pay a refundable fee of Sh1 million to obtain a bidding number and catalogue before the auction date.

The declared purchasers must also deposit 25 percent of the asking price by bankers’ cheque by the close of business of the auction date.

The balance was to be settled within 90 days to the charges, failure to which auction deposit would be forfeited.

Auctioneers have a found a buyer for the home barely a month after their efforts to get a purchaser proved futile due to what they said was a slowdown in the economy, especially in the real estate business.

Philips International Auctioneers said the bids they had received were not close to the sale value.