A Nakumatt outlet in Nairobi. [Nairobibusinessmonthly.com]Court has stopped all Nakumatt creditors from attaching the supermarket’s property to recover debts.
Creditors of the retail chain had filed several suits seeking to attach Nakumatt’s property to recover money owed to them.
High Court Judge Joseph Onguto, however, on Monday stopped the creditors and ordered the supermarket to invite within a week all those interested in appearing in the ongoing insolvency case to file their respective claims in court.
“It is hereby ordered that all creditors of the company Nakumatt Holding Ltd are prohibited from conducting any attachment, sequestration, distress and or execution against the company’s assets until further orders of the court,” Justice Onguto ruled.
The directive effectively put four major creditors at bay.
They are High Park Mall, Thika Road Mall, Integer Limited which hosts Nakumatt Mega, and Highport Properties which has leased six go-downs to Nakumatt.
High Park Mall is demanding Sh8.8 million in rent arrears, Thika Road Mall (Sh51 million in rent arrears), Integer (Sh23 million), and Highport Properties (Sh5 million).
In Kenyan law, any property belonging to a company or individual facing insolvency proceedings in court is protected from attachment for purposes of recovering the debt.
Nakumatt has been holding talks with some creditors to reach an out-of-court settlement.
Monday’s order threw into disarray another application against Nakumatt by its employees who are fighting to be paid delayed salaries.
The employees through the Kenya Union of Commercial, Food and Allied Workers are claiming that Nakumatt has delayed their salaries, failed to pay overtime work as scheduled, is not implementing the 11 percent salary increase with effect from May 1, 2017, to July 30, 2018.
The insolvency case will be mentioned on September 18.