Businessman Bitature Loses Court Bid to Block Sale of his Assets, Considers Appealing Ruling

City businessman has lost the bid to block the sale of his properties in a legal battle with a South African entity, Vantage Mezzanine Fund.

On Wednesday, the Commercial Division of the High Court dismissed an application in which Simba Properties Investment Co. Ltd and Simba Telecom Ltd, both owned by Bitature, had sought to stop the advertisement and auctioning of his four prime properties in the ongoing loan saga.

Justice Stephen Mubiru, in his ruling delivered on June 15, said it was unfortunate that Simba Properties sued Counsel Robert Kirunda, Counsel Noah Shamah Wasige of Kirunda and Wasige Advocates and Bailiff Festus Katerega of Quick Way Auctioneers and Court Bailiff in their individual capacity.

He said those sued were representing a known entity (Vantage) when they advertised their properties for auctioning in the newspapers.

The properties advertised on May 18 include; Elizabeth apartments in Kololo, Protea Hotel (Skyz’s Hotel) in Naguru, Moyo Close apartments and Kololo Gardens in Kampala.

The sale was aimed at recovering USD32,064,075 that Vantage says Bitature owes.

On the basis of all the foregoing considerations, Justice Mubiru found that the application and the underlying suit were entirely misconceived on account of the fact that they were instituted against agents of a known principal and on ground that the matters placed in issue in the suit are already the subject of a subsisting arbitral process.

“In the result, I found that a prima facie case had not been established. There were no serious questions of the law and fact to be tried by this court to justify the grant of a temporary injunction. The application was thus dismissed with costs to the respondents and the underlying suit was struck out with costs to the defendants,” the judge ruled.

Meanwhile, Bitature said he is considering appealing against the High Court’s ruling through his lawyers of Muwema and Company Advocates.

“We are studying the judgement and considering the possibility of appealing,” lawyer Fred Muwema told journalists after the ruling.