This archive report was first published on 9 July 2021.
Cytonn's Creditors Come Calling Over Sh 5.7b Debt ¶
Published on July 9, 2021
Kenyan real estate company Cytonn Investments Partners Eleven LLP is facing a Sh5.7 billion debt crisis as foreign creditors come calling.
One of the creditors, Taaleri Afrikka Rahasto II KY, a Mauritius-based company, is claiming Sh3.016 billion from Cytonn. The company wants Cytonn to either deposit a guarantee before the court or have accounts of The Ridge, Cytonn Towers, Applewood, Riverrun, and Taraji frozen.
According to court documents filed by Cecil Miller and Company advocates, Taaleri loaned Cytonn Sh2.7 billion on June 6, 2018. The two agreed to have a partnership, with the Ridgeways property as security and to hold all the monies received.
However, Taaleri claims that by June 2020, Cytonn owed it Sh3.016 billion and that foreigners who have no known security in Kenya own Cytonn. In its court documents, Taaleri's director Sirenius Jarkko says that despite constant reminders, Cytonn has failed to honour its end of the bargain.
Cytonn, however, accuses Taaleri of coming to court with unclean hands, and telling the court half-truths and outright fabrications. In reply, Patricia Njeri Wanjama, Cytonn's manager, says that contrary to Taaleri's claim, the firm is owned and managed by Kenyans save for two foreign board members who represent Taaleri.
Meanwhile, TT Africa Real Estate company, based in Kasarmikatu, Helsinki, Finland, loaned Cytonn at least Sh1.7 billion between 2015 and 2016. The company now claims that the loan stands at Sh2.7 billion and wants the court to compel Cytonn to produce all its books of accounts and be barred from dealing with its five assets.
