Fidentia HQ bids 'too low'

Cape Town - The opulent Cape Town headquarters of the Fidentia group attracted bids totalling R37.4m at an auction on Wednesday.

However it is uncertain whether the group's curators will accept the offers, which one of them, Dines Gihwala, said afterwards were far lower than they had expected.

"Consider the widows and the orphans," he called out as the bidding reached a climax in a city hotel.

The three-storey head office building at Waterford Place in the upmarket Century City development began at R15m, and within minutes closed to a phone bidder at R34.5m, a sum which excludes the 10% commission of auctioneers Auction Alliance.

Auctioneer Rael Levitt had sought to start the bidding at R50m.

The building includes a gym, a library, a business centre with fully fitted bar, an auditorium, what the auctioneers described as a "triple volume entrance hall", and a fishpond.

Levitt joked he would throw in a free koi for the successful bidder.

"Many years ago we sold all [fraudster] Jurgen Harksen's koi fish, and kept one for this special occasion," he said.

He told reporters afterwards that the top bidder was a "big property investor from Cape Town" who did not want to be identified.

The Sycodeli, a smaller building next door to the head office that was used as a canteen for Fidentia staff, went for R2.9m excluding commission.

The top bidder was a consortium of three people from Cape Town - again asking anonymity - who wanted to open a delicatessen there.

Gihwala said he was "very unhappy" with the bids and that he and his fellow-curator George Papadakis had been looking for closer to R60m.

He said they would discuss the offers with the Financial Services Board, and then "take a view on it".

In terms of the final curatorship order granted by the Cape High Court in March last year, any disposal of Fidentia assets must be approved by the board.

It was possible that the curators would negotiate with the bidders in an attempt to get a better deal, he said.

Gihwala said the greatest victims of the Fidentia affair were widows and orphans, and if buyers were magnanimous and willing to pay more, they would in essence be making a contribution to that cause.

"Every rand matters to them," he said.

Papadakis said the Century City properties were Fidentia's main assets, along with the Sante health centre in the Cape Winelands.

The curators were negotiating with possible buyers for Sante, and a deal could be concluded by the end of the year.

Fidentia boss Arthur Brown is currently out on bail on a string of fraud and theft charges related to the alleged misappropriation of funds under Fidentia's control.

The cash included funds meant for widows and orphans who were dependents of the Living Hands trust.

- Sapa