Naivasha’s Karuturi seals debt buyout deal, planning comeback

NAIVASHA: Deposed Indian flower firm is planning a major comeback to Kenya next month, after entering a debt deal that would enable it retake its vast farms currently under control of its creditor CFC Stanbic Bank.

Karuturi, accused of evading over Sh1 billion in taxes in Kenya, has convinced one of India’s biggest lenders Axis Bank to bail it out. The flower grower billed as the World’s largest cut rose supplier at over a million stems a day, has had a tough run punctuated by employee unrest at its Naivasha farms and land grab claims in its Ethiopian sister operation.