RB Patel in $1m land deal
SUPERMAKRET chain RB Patel Group Ltd has reportedly purchased a 10-acre land from the clan of Vusaibati in the village of Wailevu in Vanua Levu for a purported $1million.
RB Patel Group, a publicly listed company on the Suva-based South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPX), had not issued a market announcement on the deal as is required of publicly listed companies when entering into significant commercial agreements that may impact share prices.
However, a spokesman for the landowning unit said the company intended to use the land to build a multi-million-dollar shopping complex in Wailevu, Macuata, slated to become one of the biggest in Fiji.
“The complex will have space for other shops to rent at,” Vusaibati spokesman Kelepi Nagasa told The Fiji Times.
He had just returned from Suva last weekend after fruitful discussion with RB Patel Group Ltd executive director Surendra Patel.
“From the proposed plan, it will have a space for a police post, bank and market.”
Mr Nagasa said 800 people would be employed as a result of the project.
“Of these, a total of 70 individuals from the clan will work as security guard or cleaners at the shopping complex,” he said.
“This is part of an agreement we made with R.B Patel. They do not have to go far to look for job.”
In the next eight years, he said, Wailevu would be a small town.
“We have at least 200-acre land left which we are selling for commercial lots,” he said.
Both the RB Patel Group and SPX were not available for comments when this edition went to press.