WestProp suffers major blow as court cancels transfer of Pomona City to the company

WestProp Holdings yesterday suffered a major blow after the High Court in Harare ordered the Registrar of Deeds to cancel the transfer of Stand 654 Pomona Township where it intends to build Pomona City.

The order was issued by Justice Nyaradzo Munangati-Manongwa in the case between Fairclot Investments and Augur Investments, the Sheriff of the High Court, Doorex Properties and the Registrar of Deeds.

The stand was attached over a US$4.8 million debt Augur investments owed to Fairclot but this was uplifted by the sheriff after Augur paid Z$4.8 million and another Z$1.1 million as interest and claimed that it had fully repaid its debt at the rate of US$1 to Z$1.

Fairclot, however, challenged the upliftment and won the case yesterday.

The case was one of those that WestProp had excluded from its prospectus when it sought listing on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange.

The listing was postponed after Fairclot and other investors approached the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe asking that WestProp make a full disclosure of litigations against it.

WestProp complied by publishing a supplementary prospectus and started trading on Monday.

According to its full prospectus, WestProp described the proposed Pomona City as “a secure gated premium lifestyle that is a city within a city that is premised on sustainability and the smart city concept of live, work, play and shop”.

It said  the development was over a 273-hectare land bank. 

Other details were:

• Phase 1A of 140 stands measuring on average 2 000 sq.m was completed with associated development costs of US$11.00/sq.m for roads, storm water drainage and water reticulation. 
• Phase 1A is currently 93% sold out with full local authority compliance having been achieved. Phases 1B & C currently under servicing comprising of 592 residential stands measuring between 500sq.m and 1 000sq.m on offer. 
• Expected development costs to be incurred for the provision of infrastructure services on the 72-hectare parcel is US$6 400000. 
• Phase 1B and C comprises of 4Ha of land zoned for development of flats and a retail mall development on 2 hectares. Phase 2 and 3 comprising of 160 hectares of the estate currently under planning to bring to the forefront a lifestyle estate node that has never been developed within Zimbabwe with a full spectrum of sustainable living amenities attached. 
• Funds will be applied for the construction of off-site bulk services required including water reservoir and infrastructure services required for superstructure development.
• Funding required – US$4 000 000 (Four Million United States Dollars) to be used for the Phase 2 & 3 infrastructure services.

WestProp has not sold any shares yet.

Below is yesterday’s court judgement:

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