Dowans debt: More details emerge
THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA
NEW evidence has emerged about the state of indebtedness of the controversial Dowans Tanzania Limited company, which came close to selling its second-hand 100-megawatt turbines to the state-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO).
Official company documents show that the listed shareholder of Dowans Tanzania Ltd, Sulaiman Mohammed Yahya Al Adawi, signed legal papers with Barclays Bank Tanzania Limited acknowledging a debt of $20m.
The 56-year-old Al Adawi, a citizen of the Sultanate of Oman, surfaced for the first time over the weekend to tell a local Kiswahili newspaper that Dowans Tanzania is not in debt.
Introducing himself as the controlling shareholder of Dowans, he is quoted to have claimed that the reports suggesting that the company received loans from various commercial banks amounting to $75m (over 100bn/-) were false.
However, documents seen by THISDAY confirm that Al Adawi himself signed documents acknowledging a $20m debt from Barclays Bank Tanzania Ltd.
Other official company documents also show that Dowans received further substantial loans from Barclays Bank Mauritius and Stanbic Bank Tanzania Limited.
According to the documents dating back to 2007, Dowans Tanzania Ltd signed a debenture instrument with Stanbic Bank for another loan of $20m.
Two Stanbic Bank employees - Helen Makanza and Jeff Daly - are understood to have been involved in handling the debenture with Dowans.
However, in another development, Stanbic Bank has now declared that Dowans was not indebted to the financial institution.
’’Our records show that the said company (Dowans) is not indebted to our bank,’’ said a letter from Stanbic Bank sent to THISDAY late last week.
According to THISDAY findings, the company surrendered all its assets - including turbines, motor vehicles and machinery spare parts - as security for obtaining the massive bank loans.
Legal documents confirm that the five second-hand turbines now lying idle at Ubungo in Dar es Salaam were part and parcel of the collateral.
The turbines as described in the documents are four trailer-mounted General Electric (GE) TM-2500 gas turbine power generator sets, plus one LM-6000 PD turbine also manufactured by GE.
Each of the mobile TM-2500 power generator sets produces around 20MW of electricity, while the larger LM-6000 PD set is capable of producing up to 48 megawatts.
The Dowans company inventory list submitted to its lenders also includes two step-up transformers for outdoor installation, plus various spare parts for the electrical equipment.
The documents show that Dowans Tanzania Ltd pledged all these assets, both movable and immovable, to secure the hefty loans.
The certificates of indebtedness signed by Dowans show that the company gave up to the banks its rights to ’’all entitlements which it may at any time and from time to time have to the payment of any money.’’
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