Mário Cruz / Lusa
The president of the Public Finance Council (CFP), Nazaré Costa Cabral
The company that causes the greatest loss to the State is Parvalorem, which was created to manage the toxic assets of the former BPN.
A new study by the Public Finance Council (CFP) reveals that a third of public companies in Portugal face an extremely serious financial and economic situation, with negative equity and losses accumulated year after year.
Among the most affected is the Parvaloremcreated after the nationalization of Banco Português de Negócios (BPN) in 2008, and which continues to represent a significant weight in public accounts, writes .
Parvalorem, responsible for managing BPN’s toxic assets, accumulates annual losses in the order of hundreds of millions of eurosfinanced through debts to the State. Currently, its negative net worth amounts to 4.9 billion euros, making it the largest case of “technical bankruptcy” identified in the study. To make matters worse, the company owes around five billion euros to the State.
The CFP report analyzed 86 companies non-financial and six financial from the State Business Sector (SEE), representing a universe of 147 entities that employ more than 160 thousand people. Of these, 29 are in technical bankruptcy, concentrating 90% of the sector’s global negative value in just five companies, with emphasis on Parvalorem and, to a lesser extent, TAP SGPS, which recorded negative equity of 1.3 billion euros. at the end of 2023.
Another negative highlight was the Health sector, which accumulated losses of 993 million euros in 2023, representing 76% of SEE losses. On the other hand, the most solid public companies include Infraestruturas de Portugal, with positive equity of 12.9 billion euros, and Metropolitano de Lisboa, with 1.9 billion, driven by expansion plans and large-scale investments.
The CFP also points out that only 33 of the 86 companies analyzed recorded profits in 2023, totaling 517 million euroswhile 53 companies accumulated losses of 1.3 billion euros.
Nazaré da Costa Cabral, president of the CFP, highlighted in statements to Parliament the seriousness of the situation, especially in the case of Parvalorem and Parups, classified as “drains of public money“. According to the Court of Auditors, the total cost of BPN’s bankruptcy for taxpayers already exceeds six billion euros, with no definitive solution in sight.
