Attempt to sell luxury apartment by former GK director revealed
Attempts to sell a penthouse at the Trillium apartment complex belonging to a former director of the once, collapsed Golden Key (GK) company, Ms Padmini Karunanayake were this week disclosed to the Business Times by residents.
This apartment said to be worth around Rs.300 million was being offered at a meager price of Rs. 50 million, they said. Most of the assets of former GK directors have been seized and set to be sold by a government-appointed committee to pay-off depositors.
Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of City Housing and Real Estate Company PLC (CH&RE) told the Business Times that his company cannot sell this apartment as it belonged to a former GK director and it was not their business although they have been able to sell all the apartments except the housing units belonged to former GK directors.
Trillium Residencies was a Rs.3 billion flagship project of the Board of Investment (BOI) approved Ceylinco Condominiums Ltd, a subsidiary of Ceylinco Housing and Real Estate Company which has been renamed City Housing and Real Estate Company PLC.
When asked about this issue, CEO of the re-activated Golden Key, Migara Handunge noted that Ms. Karunanayake has in a motion to the Supreme Court expressed her desire to transfer the property to GK but the matter is before the court.
The state-appointed taskforce which is tasked with acquiring GK properties and handing them over the company for sale, is in the process of seizing two super-luxury Trillium apartments owned by Ms. Karunanayake including the penthouse. Efforts are also underway to seize another Trillium apartment owned by former Ceylinco and GK chairman Lalith Kotelawala, a 60-perch GK property at Puttalam and three floors (35,387 sq. ft.) in Ceylinco House, Mr. Handunge said.
The defunct credit card company being resurrected with the intervention of the Central Bank on a directive of the Supreme Court is now in the process of finding prospective bidders for some of the assets of the company to make their second round re-payment to depositors, a top company official said.
The expressions of interest to sell the seized building complex at De Fonseka Road, Colombo 4, and the partially completed four-storied Children’s and Women’s Hospital on 619 perches at Kirimandala Mawatha, Colombo were closed on Thursday, Mr. Handunge told the Business Times.
He noted that the company will have to raise Rs. 523 million to make the second round repayment for depositors with security deposits between Rs. 1 and 2.5 million, adding that they have disbursed Rs. 73 million among 1,204 depositors under the first phase.
The reactivated company, under state guidance, have called applications to recruit a Chief Operating Officer, two managers and a trainee assistant manger to run the company as the Central Bank appointed officials’ period of contract will end by early next year.
The salaries of the staff is being paid from the GK dedicated fund and it is essential to continue functions of the company, he said adding that the new COO will take up the duties of CEO next year.
However several GK depositors told the Business Times that it was unfair to use depositors’ money to pay employees of the company as it is a defunct entity which is not generating any money.
Since the company is in the process of identifying and selling more known and hidden assets and properties of GK and its former directors, there is a need for staff to carry out these activities, Mr. Handunge said.
There are 46 local companies and 9 foreign companies in the GK group and the total dues from these companies and other related entities amount to Rs 5.9 billion, informed sources revealed.
Some 62 former directors of GK and its subsidiaries and 24 companies of the group have so far failed to make their asset declarations in accordance with the court directive. Ex Ceylinco Chief Lalith Kotelawala has made only a partial declaration, sources said.
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