One of Portugal’s largest construction companies, Soares da Costa Construção, SGPS, SA, has applied for creditor protection under the special revitalisation process.
The workers should be pleased as the move means that frozen wages soon could be released as many have serious wage arrears with those stuck in Angola unable to return to Portugal due to lack of funds.
The Chief Executive of the company, Joachim Fitas, said today "We will move forward with a special revitalisation process under the Code of Insolvency and Business Recovery," adding that the company’s problem stem largely from the collapse of overseas markets in Angola and Mozambique, as well as in Portugal.
"We know that this is the way that best protects the interests of our employees, shareholders, customers and suppliers. In conjunction with the main creditors, today we entered a special revitalisation process in the Gaia Commercial Court," said Fitas.
The good news is that wages can be released as, according to Fitas, this plan "creates conditions that can unblocked the funds for workers, and unpaid wages will be sorted out. The goal is that in the coming days workers will receive almost all of wages that are in arrears. We hope that between this week and next week at the latest, this situation is completely regularised," said a hopeful Fitas.
Once the judge has approved the plan, a provisional liquidator will be appointed who formally will identify creditors, and organise a meeting where the process will or will not be approved by them.
The construction company management admits to five months' wages arrears for most of ithe company's employees based in Portugal, while those in Angola have not been paid for eight months and as a result are stuck there without help or support.
The difficulties faced by Soares da Costa led to the announcement in December 2015 of a collective dismissal for 500 workers but things have not improved and the company is in serious risk of collapse.
Soares da Costa was founded in 1918 by José Soares da Costa in Oporto and by the 60s became one of the largest Portuguese construction groups with projects on four continents and in many countries that currently are gripped by money problems.
In May 2016, the president of the Union of Construction Workers of Portugal said all the wage arrears could be sorted out using a sum of €8 million squirrelled away in two bank accounts.
The company decided to take the Union leader to court but did not deny explicitly that such monies existed.
The Angolan businessman, António Mosquito, bought a controlling interest in Soares da Costa in 2013.
Mosquito was negotiating the acquisition of the 33.3% still held by Portuguese investors, but with today’s request for a revitalisation process he ahd problems, as "Conditions are not there to allow the continuation of the talks leading to the sale of this stake to (Mosquito’s) GAM Holdings" explains SDC-Investments, controlled by Joachim Fitas and which owns 33% of Soares da Costa’s shares.
As for the creditors, State owned Caixa Geral de Depósitos is one of the major creditors but the António Mosquito Group has lent the company €178 million, of which €49.2 million had already been written off.
