22 Mar 2015

Cumberland Hotel, the second oldest surviving hotel in Botswana after Rileys Hotel in Maun, is up for public auction.

The hotel which has been the heartbeat of the hospitality industry in Lobatse sits on plots 474, 475 and 476, very prime spots in a town that ushered Botswana to its republic status.

By March 26th, the three star, double story building that define the landscape of Lobatse might have a new owner.

Cumberland boasts of 30 rooms of various sizes, a restaurant, cocktail bar, conference rooms a pool bar and a casino on a chunk of land  that measures about a hectare in the Central Business District of Lobatse.

Its current owners, Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) flighted an advertisement in the local media from the beginning of February to auction the hotel. In an interview, BDC head of marketing and communications, Ms Boitshwarelo Lebang said the auction is in line with their business remodelling programme whose large portion is to restructure the BDC balance sheet.

To this end, she said BDC will divest from approximately 12 per cent of its portfolio of projects and shed some of its assets which do not necessarily fit into the new strategy.

The Cumberland Hotel, she said is not the only building that the company intends to auction in its remodelling process as she cited some other buildings such as Toro lodge in Kasane, Khawa lodge in Ghanzi as well as Golden Fruit in Ramotswa , among others.

“Through its divestment strategy, BDC hopes to empower Batswana and the private sector by facilitating direct ownership of these assets by the private sector, hence the public sale of these properties,” she said.

She indicated that the sale of Cumberland is part of a larger portfolio restructuring exercise adding that through this portfolio restructuring process, BDC will create a stronger balance sheet from which to launch future initiatives that diversify the economy, create jobs and strengthen exports.

Ms Lebang said BDC was fully committed to ensuring that all its divestment activities follow the highest form of governance and are carried out in a fair and transparent manner.

She said she was confident that even after the auction, the hotel will continue to operate, though with a new owner of the property, brushing aside fears of job losses to employees who are under the current hotel operators.

She indicated that her company does not have any other hotel property in Lobatse, and does not intend to have any in the near future noting that BDC however continues to hold significant investments in the Lobatse area, including Lobatse Clay Works and Can Manufacturing Botswana among others.

The hotel director, Mr Darren Clark, told BOPA that he and the other hotel shareholders got into a 20 year lease with Botswana Development Corporation in 1995 to run the hotel operations.

The lease, he said was coming to an end next month. Mr Clark said though they had hoped to have a continuing relationship with BDC, they however could not have a hand in the auction of the hotel but to wait for March 26 for the building to be auctioned.

He said, at the moment the hotel management has not developed any after auction plan, yet was certain that by the time the hotel is being auctioned, the management would have come up with an alternative plan in the continuity of the business. ENDS