PE Firm ECP Kenya to Wind Up Following $19.3 Million Tax Claim

May 21, 2026, 12:19 PM UTC

A Kenyan court has ordered the liquidation of a unit of US private equity fund Emerging Capital Partners for failing to pay taxes after the sale of its stake in a restaurant chain.

ECP Kenya Ltd. “has made out a credible, good-faith case that it is unable to pay its debts, and liquidation appears inevitable,” Judge Josephine Wayua Wambua Mongare said in her verdict.

Kenya’s tax authority is demanding 2.5 billion shillings ($19.3 million) in tax from the the 2017 sale of ECP’s shareholding in Java House, a popular quick-service restaurant chain.

The Kenyan unit is “balance-sheet insolvent and appears ...

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