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BY Felix Osike
HILLTON Insurance Services Ltd., the company that won the bid to buy Greenland Towers for $4m (sh7.4b), has lost the offer after the payment time elapsed without the directors showing up.
The company was required to pay $2m (sh3.7b), or 50% of the purchase price, by 5:00pm yesterday and the balance in two weeks.
“This afternoon (yesterday), the auctioneers informed Bank of Uganda (BOU) that the time offered to Hillton lapsed at 5:00pm and they are writing to the second highest bidder,” BOU’s spokesman Juma Walusimbi told The New Vision yesterday.
He said BOU had acted on instructions from their external lawyers to sell the building to anybody who has the money within the bid terms.
O.K. Soni, another hitherto unknown company in Uganda, was the second highest bidder with an offer of $3.6m (sh6.7b) for the building valued at $5m (sh8b). Although one of Hillton’s contact persons Peter Sekyobe claimed that the company was registered 10 years ago, yesterday officials at the Registry of Companies maintained that it was a briefcase company with no traceable records.
The company’s one-room dusty office is located at the rear of Universal House, on Plot 8 Luwum Street in Kampala.
Vincent Kawunde, the proprietor of Oscar Associates, the auctioneers handling the sale, said yesterday that during the evaluation process, his firm was only interested in the highest bidder.
“I did not require any document from any person. What we are interested in is the money, not documents,” Kawunde said. “They called in the morning to say they were coming. I have waited. I have not seen the money and they have not made another call,” said Kawunde, adding that payment was supposed to be by bank draft.
Walusimbi said, “For us, we are selling an item just like any other asset. So long as somebody responded to the bid and was able to meet the bid terms, we didn’t ask for any particulars of any shareholders or directors.”
This is the second time B
OU and the auctioneers fail to sell the magnificent structure on Plot 30, Kampala Road, to the highest bidder.
In February, the 11-storey building was offered to Martino Agencies for $3.6m (about sh6.2b) but they failed to pay.
The defunct Greenland Bank and its associated company FIBA (U) Ltd jointly own Greenland Towers. It is being sold to recover a sh24b loan that FIBA, a former coffee-processing firm, owed Greenland Bank. FIBA owned 75% of the closed bank.
In the latest bid, city tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia through his Meera Investments and Haba Group of Companies owned by Hassan Basajjabalaba, offered sh4.25b and sh5.2b respectively.
Other bidders were Abdul Karim (2.1m pounds or sh6b), Karim Hirji (sh4.6b), Joseph Ssempebwa ( $3.1m or sh5.7b), Linda Birungi ($2.95m or sh5.5b) and Corporate Management and Restructuring Ltd ($2m or sh2.7b).
Former Greenland managing director Dr. Sulaiman Kiggundu in a letter sent from Luzira Prison where he is serving a jail sentence, protested the impending sale, describing it as illegal and fraudulent.
“I have read with a lot of pain and disappointment about the sale of Greenland Towers,” he said.
Ends
Published on: Tuesday, 12th November, 2002 |
