The majority stake of the massive half-built and derelict shopping mall, The Villa, in Pretoria, the flagship project of the failed Sharemax investment scheme, may soon be liquidated or sold to a third party, reports Moneyweb.

Any such transaction may have dire consequences for the Nova Property Group, the rescue vehicle of the Sharemax scheme, as it owns 30% of The Villa.

Thumos Properties 1, previously known as Capitol 1, holds the balance of 70%.

Thumos was also the original developer and contracted GD Irons Construction to construct The Villa.

However, after Sharemax collapsed in 2010, it could not pay GD Irons Construction, and the contractor subsequently suspended construction work.

The Villa’s possible liquidation or forced sale follows the Gauteng High Court ruling that Thumos must pay GD Irons Construction just under R500m.

The court ruled that Thumos must pay R249.4m in terms of the original contract and another R294.4m in compound interest.

This is unlikely, as Thumos is currently in business rescue and its only asset is its stake of 70% in The Villa.

In addition, The Villa has R16.1m in outstanding debt owing to the Tshwane Metro.

GD Irons Construction CEO Geoff Irons said Thumos Properties 1 went into business rescue in September last year when GD Irons Construction sued the company for the outstanding payments.

‘Do we go for the liquidation of Thumos … or the other alternative is, does Thumos find a buyer for The Villa? It will be up to Thumos’ business rescue practitioners  to decide what assets need to be sold to pay this award,’ Irons said.

Full Moneyweb report