Novobanco is preparing the sale of the company that manages Herdade da Barrosinha, in Alcácer do Sal, which the bank acquired in 2022 as part of the sale of restructuring funds managed by ECS to the Davidson Kempner Partners (DK) fund, Jornal Económico found. The sale is still in the works because “there are some difficult aspects to address,” according to sources familiar with the matter, who did not provide further details.

The bank has long said it continues its policy of not investing in non-strategic assets, particularly real estate, whenever opportunities arise, but not in a balanced manner.

Compagris – Companhia de Agricultura e Serviços (located in Herdade da Barrosinha) is valued in Novobanco’s balance sheet for the first half of the year at 19.1 million euros and Herdade da Barocina of 7.4 million euros. This is after the impairment of the share in Compagris de 14.4 million euros.

Some properties left the Raven project at the request of the buyer and were kept by the banks in their portfolio. This is the case of Compagris, which is headquartered in Alcácer do Sal and manages the Herdade da Barrosinha, as well as Solago – Investimentos Turísticos (which owns the Lago Montargil & Villas hotel), which the bank announced in the report and accounts that it sold in December 2023 at a loss of 1.2 milesI amQ to IOmani RiyalQ.

Novobanco's report and accounts reveal that in December 2022, after the completion of the sale of the restructuring funds, Novobanco acquired 100% of the capital of Compagris and Barrosinha and 84.16% of the capital of Solago.

Now “since Novbanko Group intends to sell these assets, they have been classified as discontinued operations.”

“In December 2023, the group sold Solago, having recognised a loss of EUR 1.2 million,” Novopanko’s report and accounts said.

The bank could not be reached for comment.

Lago Montargil Hotel & Villas was an asset that was part of the Crow project, but was removed as part of the sale of ECS Capital's funds to DK Partners.

According to news from February this year, the Lago Montargil & Villas hotel, a luxury development located on the banks of the Montargil (Portalegre) dam, has changed hands and has been purchased by the Portuguese hotel group, AP Hotels & Resorts. The deal is valued at between €15 and €20 million, according to a report based on a statement from Colliers, the world’s leading real estate investment management company, which advised a bank on the sale of the hotel.

It is noteworthy that the hotel management company KPI Hotel Management Services has been managing Lago Montargil & Villas since March 2023, after the unit was excluded from the Crow project, which was completed for sale at the end of 2022.

Also in December 2023, the promissory contract for the purchase and sale of the stake held in Lineas was signed, and therefore in Novobanco's accounts for that year this stake was classified as investments in associates of discontinued operations.

In May 2024, after obtaining licenses from the competent authorities, the sale process was completed and had a positive impact on Novopanco's results for the period of EUR 6.254 million.

Novbanko sold its 40% stake in the Portuguese company Lineas Concessões de Transportes – which in turn owned 50.5% of Lusoponte and 80.8% of the Douro Interior concession – for a sum well above its book value, as reported in Jornal Economico at the time. Price to Book Value Linea's 40% stake is worth €52.6 million.

The sale was closed not only with infrastructure fund Serena Industrial Partners, with which it signed a purchase and sale agreement at the end of last year, but also with Spain's Banco March.

The luxury hotel portfolio, known as “Project Crow,” was sold from venture capital manager ECS to Davidson Kempner North America in December 2022, to the market by banks that had stakes in the funds, CGD, BCP, Novo Banco, Santander and the vehicle that held Banif’s troubled assets, Oitante.

At the time, Novobanko was the only bank to disclose more details about the impact of the sale on its capital.

“The conclusion of this transaction resulted in the receipt of EUR 224 million,” Novofanco disclosed in a statement sent to the market, and that “the expected impact on net income in 2022 and on the bank’s capital ratios, as a result of the reduction of this amount.” The exposures on the balance sheet are in line with the statement dated August 23, 2022. In other words, the exposure to these funds has been reduced by 40% and to recover what was said in that statement “the reduction of this exposure on the balance sheet should lead to an increase of 25 basis points in Novofanco’s capital ratios.”

ECS was also sold at that time to DK Partners. In August of this year, ECS announced the sale of the Hotel do Caracol to the Property Core Real Estate fund, managed by Square AM. The transaction also included the signing of a lease with Açores 2000 to operate the hotel.