Montepio loses €15.6 million from two Russian firms

The Portuguese mutual banking group Montepio has lost €15.6 million from two Russian companies because of the war in Ukraine.

The group held €21.5 million of debt from a Russian gas company and a metalworks company. The war caused impairments of €15.6 million which the group hopes to partially recoup.
Involved is an investment valued at €21.5 million at the end of last year, but which “after the start of the war and the application of various sanctions by western countries on Russia”, was worth just €5.9 million in May, with the group led by Virgílio Lima recognising a loss of close to 73% of its value according to its consolidated financial results for 2021.
ECO reports that the Associação Mutualista Montepio Geral (AMMG) makes clear that the exposure is “distributed between two entities owned by the group, but not the bank itself, Banco Montepio, and hopes to recoup, at least partially, part of the amount of impairments which resulted from the Russian companies which have not been named.
The group also states that the two entities “have been receiving the interest due on the investments” which means that the two Russian companies have not defaulted on their debt servicing obligations.
Apart from Banco Montepio, Associação Mutualista Montepio Geral (AMMG) also owns the two insurers Lusitânia and Lusitânia Vida, and other companies.