By Spy Uganda
Kampala: Few days after Central Bank of Uganda taking critical investigations into the saga between Equity Bank and former Simbamanyo House owners who previously run to President for support to retrieve their sold properties to Uganda’s top tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia, TheSpy Uganda has exclusively landed on new evidence of the matter exposing Simbamanyo boss Mr Peter Kamya as a serial liar.
So What’s The Fresh Evidence?
According to our sources within Kamya’s camp, Kamya in 2017 approached Bank One of Mauritius for a loan request of $10,000,000 which was obliged.
Kamya according to sources still, lied to Bank One that the purpose of the USD 10m loan was; “for refinancing of the existing loan with Equity Bank Uganda Limited (USD 7,900,000) and to complete remaining works on Afrique Suite Hotel.” which the Bank accepted and responded to thus;
”The facility has to be used for the purpose for which they have been sanctioned. Any deviation without Bank’s approval would entail cancellation of the facility.” Despite Bank’s caution on the usage of the money [loan], Kamya through his Simbamanyo Estate never paid Equity bank as he had promised to Bank One.
The above action of Kamya, angered not only Bank One for dealing with a lier but also annoyed Equity Bank and after registering no hope of being paid, it was triggered to sell Kamya’s properties to recover their monies.
Under Which Grounds Was Kamya’s Properties Sold?
According to the recent BoU’s report about the matter that was addressed to the President as per his order to BoU Governor Emmanuel Mutebire, “The mortgaged properties were sold after a public auction, in accordance with provisions of the Mortgage Act and the Mortgage Regulations to the highest bidders.”
“It is important to note that this sale by public auction, as required by the Mortgage Act took place on October 8, 2020, within the six months period after the valuation report was made on July 4, 2020. The properties were also sold at prices above their forced sale value to Meera (Tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia’s Company) and Luwaluwa who were then registered on the same properties as the new owners,” the report partially reads.
READ ALSO: Business Mogul Sudhir Ruparelia Renames Simbamanyo Building To Gender & Labour House
In fact, BoU report came few days after Court declaring Sudhir as a rightful owner of the property following an appeal case in which the ‘now’ former owner of the building sought to stop Sudhir from taking over the property, which he bought from Equity Bank after the owner failed to clear the bank loans valued in billions.
How Did BoU Come To That Conclusion?
First and foremost, BoU learnt that two entities of Equity Bank Uganda and Equity Bank Kenya contributed money together of $3.5m and $2.5m respectively of which Simbamanyo Estates challenged saying that it only considered $7.19m (Shs26.48b), hence accusing Equity Bank Uganda of conniving with Equity Bank Kenya to illegally carry business in Uganda where it has no jurisdiction.
Simbamanyo contended that it started servicing the loan but required more financing, which culminated in two additional facilities granted by Equity Bank Uganda of $1.2m (about sh4.3b) for the completion of the construction of a hotel at Mutungo, a Kampala suburb, and to take over a prior facility from Shelter Afrique hotel.
In addition, the estate company noted that Equity Bank Uganda and Kenya brokered a new deal with Bank one, a Mauritius-based bank, to lend $10m (sh36b) to it to pay the old loan with Equity Bank lenders.
READ ALSO: You’re Just Time Wasters: High Court Dustbins Simbamanyo Estates Appeal Case Against Equity Bank
In fear of the impending adverse actions at the time, Simbamanyo says it accepted the Bank one loan offer, which was made on November 16, 2017, to bridge $10m Mauritian loan for purposes of refinancing the existing loans for a period of 24 months.
Putting the estate’s dissatisfaction aside, on August 7 and 11 this year, the bank advertised the sale of the two properties by way of public auction. The advert for sale of the mortgaged properties intended to enforce the disputed credit facility advanced on November 30, 2017.
This is how Equity Bank sold the property to tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia’s Meera Investments Company Limited at a whopping $5million approx. (shs18.5 billion) in an effort to recover Bank’s unpaid loan amounting to about $8.1million (approx. Shs30billion). Meanwhile, the multimillion property has since obtained a new name of ‘Gender & Labour House.’
