Caixa Geral de Depósitos has sold off its Vale do Lobo debt for a discounted €222.9 million to a fund managed by ECS.
The taxpayer owned bank remains exposed to the whole crooked mess, since it has shares in ECS whose mission now is to turn any assets and real estate into cash.
The buyer is the Leisure and Tourism Real Estate Fund, managed by ECS. This fund is divided up into shareholdings owned by financial institutions.
"CGD confirms that on 22 December, 2017, it sold its claims on the Vale de Lobo Group for € 222.9 million. The acquirer was an investment fund of ECS Capital entitled to intervene in projects in the sector real estate and tourism. Caixa Geral hopes that this asset can be recovered and monetised."
CGD is a major creditor and 25% shareholder of the company that owns the Vale do Lobo business and is keen to get back what is can from the disastrous loan and investment in the Algarve resort.
The bank already has written off most of this loan so any impact on its balance sheet will be positive, should it receive a payment from ECS.
Caixa Geral was the principal lender to the Vale do Lobo business in a financial operation that now forms a major part of Operation Marquês, the investigation into fraud, money laundering and corruption centring on former Prime Minister José Sócrates and includes Vale de Lobo directors, Diogo Gaspar Ferreira and Rui Horta e Costa - and a former director of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Armando Vara.
The ECS fund is owned by Fernando Esmeraldo and António de Sousa, the latter being former chairman of CGD, where he worked until 2004, leaving two years before the bank’s investment in Vale de Lobo. On the plus side, a new board of directors will be parachtuted in to run Vale de Lobo so hopefully the stench of corruption will start to dissipate..
also: 'Sócrates and the Vale de Lobo bung'
