The Rio Frio Estate is located in Alcochete and has 3.600 hectares, of which 2.600 are dedicated to cork trees and 130 to vineyards. Formerly owned by BPN and later transferred to the State through Parvalorem, when the bank went bankrupt, it is currently owned by society Cold River’s Homestead, established in March 2018, which itself is shared in equal parts by Parvalorem and BCP with 50% each.
The newspaper recalls that the fist tender for the asset’s sale was held at the end of 2018, with several bids being submitted. At the start of 2019, a Portuguese company controlled by a Spanish investor, would have offered around 35 million euro for the property and was thought at the time, theirs would be the winning bid, but they never showed on the day the deal was to be signed, the 10th March 2020.
Already in May this year, during another attempted sale, Grupo Amorim, which had offered close to 30 million euro and entrepreneur José António dos Santos, who had offered 14.5 million euro were selected by BCP as well as a company from Central Portugal which had made a similar offer.
The bank ended up deciding on a single contract under the same terms for all candidates and Grupo Amorim had the choice to buy 50% or 100% if Parvalorem were to accept the terms. Negotiations moved further and the deal is now about to be closed.