Govt reaped Rs 7.5 million from disposal of BAI assets

What happened to assets owned by the BAI group? The Minister of Finance and Good Governance provided answers in Parliament on Tuesday.

Sudhir Sesungkur, the Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, reported on the sales and transfers of BAI assets. Sudhir Sesungkur answered a question from opposition MP Aadil Ameer Meea. Sales of assets totalled Rs 3 billion, while land transfers to National Property Fund Ltd. (NPFL) and National Insurance Company (NIC) Ltd. are valued at Rs 4.5 billion.

The oldest sales date back to July 2015. The group's investments on the stock exchange were sold to brokers for Rs 74 million. The publicly traded securities were resold at Rs 2 billion and investments in Courts Kenya were bought by Victoria Industrial Chemical, a Kenyan company, for Rs 16 million. In September of the same year, Courts was sold to Mammouth Mauritius Ltd at the price of Rs 360 million.

In March 2016, BAI shares in Century Banking were sold to Ghanim Ben Saad Al Saad Group for Rs 120 million. BA Exchange Ltd was bought by a named Bahadurali Husein Jiwan Hirji for Rs 255 million in October 2016.

Transfers of land and buildings to NIC Ltd and NPFL were made in May and June 2016, respectively. The transfer value to the NIC is Rs 3 billion, while the transfer to the NPFL is Rs 1.5 billion.