Atlas creditors issued with one month notice to lodge claims
Atlas Development chief financial officer Barry Lobel. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
Creditors of Atlas Development’s Kenyan units have a month to lodge claims, the firms which are under liquidation said in newspaper notices.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and London Stock Exchange listed firm started winding up its Kenyan subsidiaries—Ardan Logistics, Ardan Medical Services and Ardan Civil Engineering—last month under the weight of bad debts.
“Creditors are required on or before February 12, to send in their names and addresses, with particulars of their debts or claims together with supporting documentation…to the undersigned (liquidator),” said the firms.
Atlas has appointed Kereto Marima as the liquidator for the Kenyan units. Mr Marima was formerly a director of the Business Advisory Group, which handled the receivership and subsequent sale of the Hillcrest Group of Schools then associated with the family of former Cabinet minister Kenneth Matiba.
Though Atlas is yet to disclose the exact amount it expects to pay creditors, the firm’s books for the year ended June 2015 showed trade payables amounting to $3.67 million (Sh375 million), up from $262,000 (Sh24 million) in the year to June 2014.
Atlas met with the creditors on December 15 where its directors laid out a statement on the firm’s state of affairs which have led to the liquidation of Ardan.
Atlas chief financial officer Barry Lobel had disclosed the liquidation was deemed necessary due to uncertainty over payment of Sh225 million ($2.2 million), part of it owed to Atlas by Turkana explorer Tullow Oil and the Geothermal Development Company(GDC).
The fall in oil prices has left oil companies in the Kenya’s upstream sector facing tighter financing prospects, in part affecting the support services firms which depend on the explorers for business.
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