Investors buy Alentejo wine estate

A group of shareholders of Ímpar Wines has bought the Alentejo wine estate Herdade das Antas.

The shareholders are Pedro Paixão, Michael Ullmann, Gareth Pearce, Andy Phillips, and Helga Kronheim.
The Sociedade Agrícola da Herdade das Antas is the company that owns 159-hectare estate (42 of which are vineyards) in the district of Fronteira which had been under the control of surgeon José Roquette, current president of the board of private hospitals, clinics and retirement homes group Luz Saúde.
The estate has been under a foreclosure order because of non-performing loans owed to Novobanco.
Pedro Paixão, CEO of the Ímpar company bought the winery, the brands and Terra D’Alter wine stocks — created in 2004 by the heart surgeon with the late economist António Borges (ex-Goldman Sachs), and Australian enologist Peter Bright – on the 11 January.
The acquisition of the estate in the district of Portalegre, which had already been supplying the grapes to produce the Alentejan wine, cost around €2.3 million.
“This was an opportunistic purchase. We knew the company was in difficulties. We went to the bank, stopped the debt clawback process, paid the banks off, and kept the property, but did so involving the former owner Prof. José Roquette.
“This was not a hostile takeover”, say the shareholders through Pedro Paixão, CEO of Ímpar.
Wines.
The shareholders hold 82% of Ímpar – Vinhas & Vinhos Lda., buying the existing debt of €4 million for just €1.2 million.
The remaining 18% of the company is divided between CEO Pedro Paixão (pictured), the enologist Peter Bright, and António Borge’s widow, Isabel, and their sons Gonçalo and Sofia.
Targets for Ímpar Wines to 2026, which currently employs 16, is for a turnover of between €4.5 and €5 million, with an EBITDA of 30%, and annual sales of 800,000 bottles of Terra d’Alter wine, at an average bottle price of €4.5 according to a report published by ECO Online.