The assets were acquired by the real estate investment company as part of the insolvency proceedings involving Boavista Futebol Clube, for 33 million euros. The public deed of sale was executed this Thursday, November 12, and includes, in addition to the Bessa Sec. XXI Stadium, areas designated for commercial use, parking, and the associated sports complex, with a total built area of approximately 78,000 m² and which includes a multi-sport field, locker rooms, stands, tennis courts, a grass field, a bar, and a park, as well as a plot of land measuring 21,145 m² “which offers significant urban development potential, given that a portion of the land is zoned under Porto’s Municipal Master Plan (PDM),” the press release states.
A complex deal that began two years ago
Completed this week, this transaction took about two years; having begun even before Boavista Futebol Clube was declared insolvent. In a statement, the law firm Cerejeira e Namora explains that businessman Paulo Santos Silva, who works in the event planning sector and represents the company Fun Adict, “initiated a lengthy process to acquirethe receivables of two of Boavista’s largest creditors, acquiring the receivables from BES and BPI, which, in the meantime, had been acquired from asset management companies— Ares Lusitani (part of the Hipoges group, now Finsolutia) and the Irish firm BTL Ireland Acquisitions II DAC”, which totaled 15 million euros.
Legal counsel for this matter was provided by the Cerejeira Namora, Marinho Falcão team, led by founding partner Nuno Cerejeira Namora, along with Zita Xavier Medeiros and Pedro Silva e Sousa from the Civil Law team, as well as Gonçalo Cerejeira Namora and Marta Outeiro Correia from the Corporate Law team.
Businessman Paulo Santos Silva was joined by Jorge Silva Maurício, Chairman of the Confrasilva Group, and together they created an investment company to purchase the remaining receivables. In thiscontext, the Confrasilva Group was advised by teams from Andersen, led by Pedro Raposo, a partner at Andersen Iberia, along with Andreia Damásio from the insolvency team and Jaime Vieira da Silva from the Corporate practice.
Given that the combined claims of BTL and Ares allow for control of the first mortgage on Boavista’s real estate assets, it was necessary to secure the remaining portion of the first mortgage as well as the second mortgage. Once these claims were combined, this group of investors would become the club’s largest creditor. Once part of the partnership, the fund acquired the debt owed by Sacyr Somague—the company that had built the Estádio do Bessa—in the amount of 54 million euros. With this acquisition, the fund came to hold approximately 70% of Boavista’s debts; the club had since been declared insolvent, with legally recognized debts in the range of 100 million euros.
Photo: Bessa XXI Stadium, courtesy of Visit Porto
