Ugandan businessman Patrick Bitature, Vantage Capital at odds over $30-million property loan

Vantage Capital has taken another step forward in its long-running dispute with Ugandan businessman Patrick Bitature over a $30-million property loan, with the South African lender threatening to auction Bitature’s real estate empire in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city.

As part of the dispute, which dates back to 2014, Vantage Capital hired auctioneers to sell key properties owned by Bitature’s Simba Telecom Limited but mortgaged through his real estate holding company, Simba Properties Investment Company Limited.

These properties include the 30-unit Elizabeth Royal Apartments in Kololo, Skyz Hotel in Naguru, and Moyo Close Apartments in Kololo, a residential and commercial neighborhood in Kampala.

What began as a promising partnership in 2014, when Vantage Capital lent the Ugandan businessman $10 million to invest in the 14-unit Moyo Close Apartments and Skyz Hotel in Naguru, has quickly devolved into an estranged alliance, with reports revealing that Bitature, through Simba Group, has not yet paid back a single dollar to the South African lender.

Sources close to the transaction revealed that instead of paying back the $10-million loan, Bitature and Simba Group hired lawyers who argued that the South Africans were not authorized to lend in Uganda and, therefore, could not claim to recover the loan.

Bitature, a Ugandan businessman who is one of the country’s wealthiest people, is the founder, chairman and group CEO of Simba Group, an East African conglomerate.

According to data gathered by Billionaires.Africa, the $10-million loan that Bitature secured from Vantage Capital has tripled since 2014 to around $30 million after interest, charges and penalties.

Companies associated with the businessman have been embroiled in a separate legal battle with Absa Bank over a multimillion-dollar loan.