Mário Ferreira makes capital increase

Mário Ferreira, the Portuguese business tycoon who owns the Pluris Investments Group, has decided not to advance with a €40 million loan from Portugal’s development bank Banco Português de Fomento to pay for the construction of a new cruise ship.

The group, which operates in the tourism and media sectors, made the announcement on Monday in a communiqué in which it said it would instead pursue a capital increase to raise own funds from its company Mystic Invest.
Furthermore, to finance this capital increase it will also sell some of the asset held by Pluris Investments.
In the communiqué, the group clarifies its “decision to apply for funding from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP)” which was approved by the Banco Português de Fomento which it has now cancelled following public criticism.
The group then criticises the leader of the left-wing party Bloco Esquerda, Catarina Martins, and the ambassador and former presidential candidate Ana Gomes for “insulting statements which were out of context, populist and demagogic”.
The group emphasises that it has various companies, such as the pleasure cruise company Douro Azul, employing over 1,800 staff and paying salaries of over €50 million in the tourism sector.
It adds that Mystic Invest Holding has four ships and will have a fifth ship in operation on the River Douro by the end of the year that is currently “in the final phases of construction” at the Viana do Castelo Naval Shipyards (ENVC).
It is to pay for this that the group needs to raise own capital of around €80 million. The application and approval for the proposed loan from EU bazooka funds was criticised by some parliamentary MPs as not being suitable or appropriate as it did not reflect money well spent on the strategic pillars aimed at modernising, digitalising and making Portugal’s economy and companies more competitive.
According to Forbes commercial leisure trips into space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin capsule cost between €250,000 to €500,000. Mário Ferreira has booked himself on tomorrow’s (Thursday 4 August) flight out of Texas as the first Portuguese man in inner space. (100 km above sea level)