da ist die AZ aber auf altem Stand. Am Freitag hatte das Gericht das Hotel schon für insolvent erklärt und unter Zwangsverwaltung gestellt.
THE company owning the
four-star Swakopmund
Hotel and Entertainment
Centre, in which transport
parastatal TransNamib
is a 50% shareholder, is
“hopelessly insolvent”, a
Supreme Court judge said
on Friday.
The remark about the
financial woes of the
Swakopmund Station
Hotel company was made
by appeal judge Dave
Smuts in a judgement in
which the Supreme Court
overturned a High Court
judge’s decision to order
TransNamib to sell its
stake in the company to
co-shareholder Stocks &
Stocks Leisure for N$5
million.
TransNamib appealed
against the judgement
delivered by High Court
judge Thomas Masuku in
November last year.
The parastatal won the
appeal on Friday, with the
Supreme Court setting
aside the High Court’s
order and replacing it
with an order that Swakopmund
Station Hotel is
placed under a provisional
order to be wound up.
That order would be in
effect until 25 June.
The appeal court referred
the case – in which
Stocks & Stocks Leisure
sued TransNamib Holdings
in an attempt to get a
forced buyout of the parastatal’s
shareholding in
the hotel company – back
to the High Court, which
will have to decide if a
final order for the winding
up of the company should
be granted.
Smuts recounted in his
judgement that Stocks
& Stocks Leisure (Namibia)
and TransNamib
established Swakopmund
Station Hotel as a joint
venture 27 years ago.
A company related to
Stocks, Legacy Hotels
Management Services,
was appointed to manage
the hotel.
Since the hotel started
operating, it has managed
to show a profit in only
four of the 26 years it was
in business, Smuts said.
The hotel closed following
the outbreak of
the novel coronavirus
pandemic last year, and
after that Stocks sued
TransNamib in an attempt
to take over the parastatal’s
shareholding in
the joint venture company.
By the time Stocks took
the case to the High Court,
Swakopmund Station Hotel’s
liabilities of N$110,5
million far exceeded the
value of its assets, estimated
at N$65,5 million,
Smuts said.
He said the facts provided
to the High Court
showed the company was
“hopelessly insolvent”,
and that it was clear the
insolvency did not arise
because of the pandemic
outbreak in 2020.
Stocks asked the court
to order TransNamib to
sell its shareholding to it
in terms of a section of the
Companies Act of 2004.
Over the years the
hotel has been operating,
TransNamib has
not received any profit
from the venture, while
Legacy Hotels Management
Services received
more than N$58 million
in management fees, and
Stocks received substantial
interest payments on
loans given to the company,
Smuts said.
TransNamib’s involvement
in the company
showed poor corporate
governance on its part,
but that did not amount
to conduct which the
relevant section of the
Companies Act caters for,
the judge found.
He said Stocks did not
show its offer to buy out
TransNamib’s stake in the
company for N$5 million
was fair and equitable.
Chief justice Peter Shivute
and appeal judge
Sylvester Mainga agreed
with Smuts’ judgement.
