Troubled retailer, Nakumatt Supermarkets, has been evicted from yet another plum spot after GC Retail, which owns Garden City Mall threw its out of its premises over unpaid rent, service charges and utilities, it has emerged.
The company is now eyeing a new anchor tenant for the expansive mall. According to Business Daily, Nakumatt, which has been occupied the Thika Road-based Mall, owed GC Retail Ksh 48.1 million.
Business Daily reports that Stuart Gibson, the General Manager of Broll Kenya Limited which manages the premises, confirmed last week that the troubled retailer had been evicted.
“We can confirm that on November 27 we exercised our legal right as landlord to peaceably re-enter the Nakumatt premises at Garden City Mall,” it quoted Mr Gibson as saying.
“We regret the necessity to take this action following Nakumatt’s recent application for administration, where it admitted insolvency, and the High Court’s subsequent rejection of its proposed rescue plan.” The mall owners had earlier said Nakumatt was in default from June 1, 2016, the paper says.
The revelation came as the supermarket chain was also evicted from a building in Moshi, Tanzania for failing to pay rent for more than one year leaving it with only one supermarket outlet in Kenya’s southern neighbour’s capital in Dar es Salaam following the closure of two other stores in as many months.
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Nakumatt’s future remains bleak after the Competition Authority of Kenya rejected a planned merger with Tuskys Supermarket, which was planning to help sort out its liquidity woes.
The regulator asked the two retailers to seek an exemption from regulations on anti-competitive behaviour rather than approval for the merger they had sought.
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