Fund Box, the management company of the Nexponor fund, which owns the land and facilities of Exponor, announced on Monday 20th November that "the real estate assets that make up its assets, located in the Exhibition Park and adjacent land in Matosinhos, will be presented to the market in a structured sale process".
The information is contained in the advert published by Nexponor's management company, shared by Negócios, stating that "the Exponor Exhibition Park is one of the largest spaces in Portugal for fairs and congresses".
At stake is around 180,000 square metres of land, which includes 40,000 square metres of the exhibition park, the surrounding area and the real estate development zone, totalling 100,000 square metres. "The properties will be sold as they stand," the advert states.
The newspaper recalls that in July, in statements to Público, AEP president Luís Miguel Ribeiro said that the association had signed a promissory contract to buy back the Exponor exhibition centre, having advanced 1 million euros as a down payment. The deal would have to be closed within a year, by May 2024. Financing for this operation "could come from our own revenues, from the Banco de Fomento, from the European Investment Bank, from a bond issue. We'll see," he said at the time.
The Nexponor fund was set up around 10 years ago, as part of AEP's financial restructuring plan, which handed Exponor over to this property fund in an operation that, by converting bank loans into investment units, reduced practically all of AEP's liabilities, which at the time totalled around 100 million euros.