Pharol notified by Rioforte to appear at the Commercial Court of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

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That is, Pharol will respond to a request for nullity from the liquidators of Rio Forte Investments regarding a payment of 199.6 million euros made by the company that was part of the Espírito Santo Group to the former PT SGPS.

Pharol, formerly Portugal Telecom, informed the market of Rio Forte’s notification to appear at the Commercial Court of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

“Pharol received in February 2024 a notification from an Enforcement Agent (Huissier de Justice) of Luxembourg on behalf of the liquidators of Rio Forte Investments, to appear at the Commercial Court of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on the 19th of April 2024 at 9 am – this session determines the start of the process, and until that date Pharol will not have to take any position on the process”, says the company in a statement.

This is a “qualified request by the liquidators of Rio Forte Investments as a subsidiary” in relation to the already requested “non-recognition of the credit claimed by Pharol” in the insolvency of Rio Forte, “in the amount of 918,146,770.80, euros (918 .1 million euros) of declaring the nullity of the payment of 199,631,000 euros (199.6 million euros) made by RFI on April 15, 2014
directly to Pharol”.

That is, Pharol will respond to a request for nullity from the liquidators of Rio Forte Investments regarding a payment of 199.6 million euros made by the company that was part of the Espírito Santo Group to the former PT SGPS.

The liquidators themselves recall in this new notification that the insolvency administrators challenged Pharol’s declaration of credit as an unsecured credit in the amount of 918.1 million euros, for an alleged mere “matter of prudence”.

At issue is a credit that this company inherited from Portugal Telecom, which had invested almost 900 million euros in Rioforte before the collapse of the Espírito Santo Group in 2014.

It is the Luxembourg Court that will decide whether that credit is recognized.

“From reading the notification received, there are no new arguments that call into question, in Pharol’s understanding and supported by the Opinion of its Lawyers, the regularity of the company’s credit on the insolvency of Rio Forte Investments in the amount of 918,146,770.80 euros” , defends the Portuguese company.

Pharol promises that it “will keep the market informed of relevant developments in the aforementioned processes and will not fail to take all necessary and appropriate measures to fully defend the interests of all of the company’s Stakeholders”.

For many years, Pharol, formerly PT SGPS, has been trying to recover as much as possible from PT’s ruinous investment of 897 million euros in debt from Rioforte, a company that belonged to the Espírito Santo Group.