Brussels, 29/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Espirito Santo Financial Group (ESFG), the main shareholder of Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo (BES), and Rioforte Investments, the holding company of Rioforte, have both been placed in public liquidation, announced the Tribunal d'Arrondissement de Luxembourg court in a press release recently. ESFG holds 20% of BES' capital and announced on 24 July that it was no longer able to pay its debts. ESFG says the liquidation scheme under which the three holding companies of the group have now been placed will make it easier to sell off assets in stages.
The Portuguese central bank intervened on Monday evening, announcing that, if necessary, BES could have access to private cash to meet its solvency requirements. The newspaper Expresso reported earlier in the day of losses of up to €3 billion in the first half of the year, compared with its capital buffers of around €2.1 billion. The central bank said that €6 billion were available as a last resort to recapitalise banks. BES cancelled its shareholder meeting scheduled for Tuesday because of “unexpected events” notably the placing of ESFG in liquidation. (EL)