Ricardo Machado is the new owner of everything: 7300 hectares, of which 1200 hectares are tourist hunting reserves, a destination for famous local and international hunters in the period devoted to hunting large game, such as deer, fallow deer, mouflon, pirate or wild boar.
This is Herdade do Vale Feitoso, the largest fenced private property in Portugal and one of the giants of the Iberian Peninsula.
Located in Idanha-a-Nova, Castelo Branco region, it was purchased by the Espírito Santo Group (GES) in 2004, after being converted by Salgados into a kind of family mansion, a place to party and hunt with friends.
Meanwhile, the GES collapsed and the property’s owner, Companhia Agrícola de Penha Garcia, named after the village in Idanha, which has just over half a thousand inhabitants, went bankrupt.
Subsequently, a BES heir was booked on these assets, and the company was declared insolvent in February 2017, in a process in which Novo Banco claimed €53.3 million in credits.
Since the end of 2018, the bankrupt property of Penha Garcia has been promoting various selling actions, with successive price revisions, after last year it sold the property to a real estate investment trust owned by Spain’s Tenigla Group.
A purchase worth “much higher” than the 20.7 million paid by the Spaniards
Now, Herdade do Vale Feitoso has passed into the hands of Ricardo Machado with a value “much higher” than the 20.7 million euros spent by the Spaniards, and he assured the Portuguese businessman of Negosios, without revealing the exact value of the deal.
Machado asserts that he will “keep the entire investment plan of 50 million euros” announced by the Spanish group Vale Feitoso, making it a “self-sustaining property”, as its goal is to bet “on the acquisition of more forest real estate.”” in our country.
With the acquisition of the former Espírito Santo Palace, the Portuguese businessman, who has excelled in business ventures in several African countries, intends to “pursue a plan to redirect the geographical exposure of his investment portfolio, reducing his presence on the African continent and increasing the bets on Europe, in particular on Portugal,” Machado explains, in a note sent to Negócios.
In the context of this regional reorientation strategy, the Portuguese businessman adds that he “sold his holdings in the multilateral Afreximbank and in a commercial bank in Ghana, including other real estate assets, some of which are related to retail, which he owned in the same African country.”
He reveals that his goal “is to continue and expand the project to transform the Herdade do Vale Feitoso started by the Spaniards and which includes combining bets on forests, livestock, tourism and hunting.”
This project adds to other investments Machado says he already has in Portugal, “in the centre, south and islands, in the areas of agri-food, tourism and energy”.
Millionaire lawsuit against General Electric and the Angolan state
Meanwhile, Ricardo Letao Machado and his company AEnergy are continuing “numerous legal battles in civil and arbitration courts in the United States, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Angola against the American group General Electric and the Republic of Angola.”
Machado is holding them “for breach of contract, fraud and non-contractual damages related to 13 contracts and investment projects in Angola worth US$1.2 billion, unilaterally terminated by the Angolan state, including subsequent wrongful confiscation of equipment and other assets”. of Energy,” accuses him.
Regarding this issue, it was known last April that the US justice had refused to rule in the case brought by AEnergy against the Angolan state, so the case will now be heard in Luanda.
On May 7 last year, the company filed a lawsuit in New York Federal Court against US General Electric and the Angolan government, claiming damages of about 550 million US dollars (more than 539.3 million US dollars). euro). Termination of contracts.
The case concerns 13 contracts signed between Aenergy and the Ministry of Energy and Water (Minya), in 2017, for the construction, expansion, rehabilitation, operation and maintenance of power plants in Angola.
There is a civil liability case brought by Aenergy, which is owned by Ricardo Leitão Machado, and its subsidiary Combined Cycle Power Plant Soyo SA, against Minea, the Ministry of Finance, Empresa Pública de Produção de Eletricidade (ENDE) and the National Electricity Distribution Company (Prodel), calling “The accused in Angola” as well as against three companies General Electric (GE), the accused’s former business partner.
In Energy’s initial indictment in New York federal court, filed in May 2021, the “defendants in Angola” were charged with eight crimes, including two termination offenses, one related to unjust enrichment, and two with violation of the law. intangible assets) and the crime of unlawful confiscation.
Aenergy has been embroiled in a dispute with Angola since the Angolan director terminated several contracts with the company in 2019, alleging breach of trust over alleged wrongdoing, and accusations the company rejects, ensuring that Minya is alerted and several projects are implemented without receipt. Pay.
(News updated at 18:48)
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