In a question directed to Joaquim Miranda Sarmento through the Assembly of the Republic, PCP parliamentary leader Paula Santos highlighted concerns over reports that “a manager from Lone Star may have secured or intervened in a specific sale of a plot of land with building potential on the Portuguese coast,” in the Meco area of Sesimbra.
According to these reports, the sale was conducted at a price of 1.5 million euros for a plot with an area of 270 hectares, offering the possibility of constructing 50,000 square meters. This pricing is considered to be at a suspiciously discounted level.
Paula Santos emphasized that “the sale of Novo Banco’s assets at bargain prices, with significant discounts covered by the capital agreement, constitutes, in the PCP’s opinion, a financial and political crime.”
“The sale of these assets to entities related to Lone Star or any of its subsidiaries exacerbates the problem, demonstrating that public interest was neglected and laws were violated,” she argued.
The PCP is asking the Minister of State and Finance whether the government was aware of this transaction and “what measures will be taken to ascertain the exact circumstances under which this transaction was conducted.”
They further ask whether “the Government is aware of the media reports concerning the incomplete disclosure of information regarding the land’s construction capacity at the time it was placed on the market?”
Alongside this query, the PCP submitted a request to Joaquim Miranda Sarmento for a range of documents related to this business, including the “sale dossier of the asset,” the technical data sheet of the sold estate, the “discount applied in relation to the asset’s book value,” and the “resolution fund’s opinion on the land sale.”
In another request addressed to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM), the PCP also seeks any documents held by the entity related to this sale, whether opinions or rulings, as well as “the dossier of the asset or group of assets linked with the sale of Herdade da Ferraria.”
A manager from Lone Star, the American fund that acquired a controlling stake in Novo Banco, reportedly sold to his wife an estate owned by the bank in Sesimbra, Setúbal, at a “bargain price,” according to a report by Público on Monday.
The report, citing “official documents, others of confirmed legitimacy, exchanged emails, and various testimonies,” indicates that the Herdade da Ferraria, spanning over 260 hectares, “was sold in 2022 for 1.5 million euros, as rustic and vacant, despite having a ‘building capacity of 50,441.14 square meters, of which 5,000 are for residential use.”
It was noted that this information about the building potential at Herdade da Ferraria “was not included in the sale dossier,” when, according to a sector expert, “it would have, at the very least, elevated the price to between 10 and 15 million euros.”
