LONDON--Art work and office buildings are being sold by
bankruptcy receivers for the Espirito Santo group of companies that
collapsed last year amid fraud allegations.
The 36-story Espirito Santo Plaza in Miami went on the block in
April after Luxembourg officials managing the bankrupt companies
hired Florida's EXAN Capital to manage the sale. The office and
condominium tower, located in Miami's Brickell Avenue financial
district, is expected to fetch at least $120 million based on
market prices.
The proceeds of the sale will go to creditors of Espirito Santo
International SA, the top holding company of the former Espirito
Santo empire that spanned banking, real estate, health care and
energy, and its subsidiaries. Espirito Santo Plaza had been owned
by Florida-registered Estoril Inc., part of Espirito Santo
International subsidiary Rio Forte Investments SA.
Espirito Santo International also put up for sale a set of
paintings at Christie's in Paris last month. According to
Christie's website, paintings offered by multiple sellers including
the Espirito Santo International estate raised EUR2.98 million
($3.18 million) on March 30. A spokeswoman for Christie's said she
couldn't provide a breakdown by seller.
Portugal's Espirito Santo family spent decades building a global
network of financial and industrial companies under patriarch
Ricardo Salgado. The group started to collapse last spring when the
Bank of Portugal appointed auditors to review Espirito Santo
International's accounts and found irregularities. A tangle of
cross-funding across the group unraveled, leading to the August
failure of the group's prize asset, Banco Espírito Santo SA.
Banco Espírito Santo's failure is under investigation by the
Bank of Portugal, the country's markets regulator and the
prosecutor's office, which has opened probes for suspected money
laundering and fraudulent practices.
Other assets up for sale across the insolvent group include
several real-estate projects in Brazil, and a 66% stake in
real-estate developer Property Brasil SA, according to documents on
the receivers's website.
The Luxembourg court-appointed receivers haven't publicly said
how much the group companies held in assets and liabilities at the
time of their collapses. They also haven't indicated what the
ultimate outcome for creditors might be. Alain Rukavina, receiver
for ESI and Rio Forte, didn't immediately respond to requests for
comment.
The sales come as other Espirito Santo creditors have taken
legal action in the U.K. and Portugal over repayment. This week,
New Zealand's Superannuation Fund and several other funds filed a
claim in Portugal against Novo Banco SA, the "good bank" carved out
of Banco Espírito Santo, over a loan made by a Luxembourg
investment vehicle to the Portuguese bank. The New Zealand
retirement fund, holding notes backed by the loan, is questioning
the legality of a decision by the Bank of Portugal to keep the loan
in the rump "bad bank" of Banco Espírito Santo where it is unlikely
to be repaid.
A Novo Banco spokesman declined to comment.
Junior bondholders in Banco Espírito Santo have also filed
lawsuits in Portugal and in the European Union's general court over
actions by Portuguese and European Union authorities in the bank's
August breakup.
Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com
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