By Andrea Hargraves 
Twenty-five million euros. This was the amount paid by Portuguese businessman Ricardo Machado to buy the largest fenced private property in Portugal, according to the website Egy Prime, which specializes in real estate, citing “market sources”.
Last July 23, the businessman pointed out that I got Herdade do Vale Feitosolocated in Idanha-a-Nova, in the Castelo Branco region.
Then, in statements to Negosius, the businessman refused to disclose the value of the operation, noting, however, that the purchase was closed at a value “much higher” than the 20.7 million euros paid by the Spanish group Tenigla in 2021. Ricardo Machado also said that he “will maintain On the full investment plan of 50 million euros” announced by the Spanish group of Vale Feitoso, making it a “self-sustaining property”, and submitting that its goal is to bet “on the acquisition of Vale Feitoso. More forest properties “in our country.
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, reduce his presence on the African continent and increase focus on Europe and, in particular, in Portugal”.
fief of “owner of everything”
Herdade do Vale Feitoso is a property with an area of 7,300 hectares, of which 1,200 hectares are tourist hunting reserves, and a destination for famous local and international hunters in the period devoted to hunting large game, such as deer, fallow deer, roe deer, wild deer or wild boar.
It was bought by Espírito Santo Group (GES) in 2004, after it was converted by Salgados into a kind of family mansion, a place for parties and fishing trips 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 sale actions, with successive price revisions, after last year it sold the property to a real estate investment trust owned by Tenigla.