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Herdade da Comporta investment fund has been sold

10 July 2017

Pedro Almeida has acquired 59% of the Herdade da Comporta investment fund. The process had begun in September of last year.

Herdade da Comporta investment fund has been sold. The buyer has been identified as the businessman Pedro Almeida. The company that manages the estate’s agricultural activities will continue in operation.

According to information gathered by Negócios, the transaction involves the sale of 51% of Herdade da Comporta – Special Closed-end Real Estate Investment Fund (FEIIF). The estate, which belonged to the Espírito Santo Group, is in the Alentejo, in the counties of Alcácer do Sal and Grândola.

The newspaper Eco had reported in May that Pedro Almeida, a businessman linked to the oil sector, was expected to acquire the fund. Pedro Almeida runs Ardma SGPS, an oil transportation company. Upon being contacted, the businessman denied having entered the process with Portuguese partners, rejecting an account initially reported by Negócios.

Pedro Almeida guaranteed that the company that has acquired 59% of the outstanding units of the Comporta fund, previously owned by Rioforte, is controlled by Ardma Imobiliária, the real estate arm of Ardma SGPS.

In May, the expectation was that the transaction would be completed during the first quarter of the year, but the process was briefly held up. The value of the sale was not disclosed.

This was the second time the fund had undergone the sales process. The first process had been halted in June 2015 after a Portuguese public prosecutor ordered the seizure the Espírito Santo Group’s assets. Among those involved in the first sale were the Americans Asher Edelman and his partner, David Storper, of Armory Merchant Holding, who offered 400 million euros for the Comporta fund and agricultural society.

In September last year, the process of the sale of Herdade da Comporta – Special Closed-end Real Estate Investment Fund, which manages the tourism and real estate projects of that enterprise, started again. The sale was triggered by the liquidation committee of Rioforte, the company of the former Espírito Santo Group which holds a 57% position in the fund, with PLMJ as legal advisor and Haitong Bank as financial advisor.

The sale was launched “with the agreement of the Portuguese judicial authorities.” This was necessary as the Portuguese justice system had barred the outflow of funds. As stated previously in official documents of the Rioforte liquidation commission, revenues will be retained in Portugal.

“The net proceeds from the sale [of the Comporta investment fund] will be deposited in an account blocked by Portuguese authorities,” read the report, regarding the deposit expected by the end of the year, for the insolvency trustees of Rioforte, a company through which GES controlled the estate located on the coast of Alentejo.

“The same conditions” that shall apply to the proceeds obtained from this transaction, will also apply to the sale of the shares of Herdade da Comporta – Agrosilvícolas and Touristic Activities, the company responsible for the agricultural lands in which the rice fields are cultivated. However, this operation has not yet moved forward.

According to information published in Eco in May, Pedro Almeida also intends to acquire the agricultural area of this business.

Original Story: Jornal de Negócios – Celso Filipe and Diogo Cavaleiro

Translation: Richard Turner