The sale of Ferraria’s Herdade to the manager’s wife is being investigated by CMVM for not including a study on the construction potential of the land.
Since its sale to the US Private Equity Fund Lone Star in 2017, the new bank has been the target of several controversy related to operations of operations Selling assets below their real value. According to the advance, there is one more case to join this list, with the sale of Herdade da Ferraria, a property in Sesimbra with 268 hectares and direct access to the sea.
The property, belonging to the portfolio of GNB Real Estate (Novo Banco’s real estate manager), was Sold in 2022 by 1.5 million eurospresented as a rustic and vacant asset. However, internal documents show that Ferraria’s Herdade had an building capacity of more than 50,000 square meters, which was not informed in the sales dossier.
The transaction initially involved three investors: Alexander Tilmant, Alvaro Fernandez Alonso and Vasco Pereira Coutinho. Two years later, the property went to Ana Flor ArgosVolkert Schmidt’s wife, who, as president of GNB Real Estate, approved the sale to the first investors.
Schmidt, nominated by Lone Star to manage Novo Banco’s real estate portfolio, accumulated positions at Hudson Advisers, a company linked to Lone Star, and GNB. In 2018, he restructured the Real Estate Management Department, carrying out layoffs and leading a team linked to Hudson. Between 2018 and 2019, Novo Banco sold real estate assets for values significantly below from its market value to Anglo-Saxon funds.
The process of selling the Herdade da Ferraria also omitted essential information of the documents analyzed by the Novo Banco Real Estate Investment Committee (CII). The legal study that attested the terrain constructive potential It was deliberately excluded, resulting in the approval of the sale without a reevaluation of the price.
In 2024, the frantic quadrant, a company created to consolidate the property, also passed entirely to Ana Flor Argos, which generated suspicions about the possible involvement of Volkert Schmidt in the business.
The case was reported to the Securities Market Commission (CMVM), which now investigates the possible conflict of interest and the lack of transparency in the sale of Ferraria Herdade.
