Bitature accepts USD10mln loan, says negotiations with Vantage ongoing well
KAMPALA– Kampala businessman, Patrick Bitature has finally accepted that he indeed borrowed US$ 10 million from Vantage Mezzanine Fund in December 2014 and is willing to pay, as negotiations, including arbitration, as agreed in the agreement, are ongoing.
Currently, Bitature’s loan obligation to Vantage, which he was claiming to be illegal, has accumulated to US$ 34 million, the last repayment period having elapsed in December 2019.
Bitature in the latest statement says the money was borrowed to complete his Protea by Marriot Skyz Hotel and working capital for Electromaxx subsidiary.
The agreement had a 3-year moratorium [freeze] for repayment of both the principal and interest.
In the statement, he says he based his loan on the economic prospects in the country then.
“Simba was confident of economic prospects in the country as Uganda had discovered 6.5 million barrels of oil reserves. Like many other business players in Uganda, we were expecting economic upturn, and therefore in line with our innovative plans, groundbreaking and forward vision, we explored opportunities to generate value in the economy with sustainable investment,” Bitature says.
In the statement, he also says the delay in making the final investment decision [FID] also had an effect on his investment plans, leading to failure to meet his debt obligation whose date of repayment was to come around December 2017, but was pushed to December 2019, having discussed with Vantage.
Recently, High Court threw out Bitature’s application seeking protection from prosecution, the ruling saying his application “catastrophically lacks a legal basis.”
His lawyer Fred Muwema was ordered to meet the costs of the application for wasting the court’s time with his useless application.
Much as Bitature says he is in further negotiations with Vantage, the latter has not come out to say whether its intention to sell Bitature’s properties still stands.
Below is Bitature’s full statement:
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