Auctioneers Fail to Find Buyer for Former Nakumatt CEO Atul Shah's Nairobi Mansion

Auctioneers have failed to find a buyer for a mansion belonging to former Nakumatt CEO Atul Shah.

The home located in Nairobi’s posh estate of Lavington was repossessed from Shah over a Sh2 billion debt and was put up for sale in July.

This was after the High Court dismissed a petition seeking to block KCB Group from selling the property to recover the debt.

Through Phillips International Auctioneers, the lender was set to sell the property valued at over Sh30 million on August 24th.

“The sale of Atul’s house did not happen last month although we received numerous enquiries. We attribute this to a general slowdown in the economy especially in the real estate business,” a representative of Phillips International Auctioneers told Business Daily.

“The amount we got was almost close to the sale value. This did not meet our targets and we had to reject it. We plan to float the house again for auction soon but in consultation with the bank.”

Prospective buyers were required to pay a refundable fee of Sh1 million to obtain a bidding number ahead of the August 24th auction date.

The four-bedroom house with servant quarters and a semi-permanent generator room was offered as security in 2011 and accounted for Sh25 million in the multi-billion-shilling loans given to Nakumatt.

Court documents indicate that KCB sold another of Shah’s prime property in Nairobi’s Industrial Area to Furniture Palace International Ltd for Sh1.04 billion.

By the time it closed shop in January 2020, Nakumatt had racked up debts totaling Sh30 billion, including Sh18 billion to suppliers, Sh4 billion to commercial paper holders, and the rest to banks.

The retailer owed DTB Bank Sh3.6 billion, Standard Chartered Sh900 million, KCB Sh1.9 billion, Bank of Africa Sh328 million, UBA Sh126 million, and GT Bank Sh104 million.