Soares da Costa faces bankruptcy

Creditors are to decide if one of Portugal’s oldest construction companies SDCCAA, formerly known as Soares da Costa, is to be forced into liquidation.

Soares da Costa had changed its name to Sociedade de Construção da África Austral (SDCCAA) but in May was declared bankrupt.
According to the newspaper Negócios there are some 2,000 creditors claiming €550 million who will decide today if they will force the company into liquidation.
The name change took place at the end of 2022 but retained the same tax number. The company is currently headed by Joaquim Fitas.
The meeting of the creditors today (Friday, July 7) will decide if they will force bankruptcy and the selloff of the company’s assets which have been valued at €28 million, mostly involving property.
On December 31 last year, the construction firm reported negative own capital of €-16 million. According to the provisional list of creditors (1,200) around €550 million is outstanding with one-third of the debts owed to the Portuguese State-owned bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos (€186 million). The bank BCP is owned €107 million (20%) and BPI around €41 million (7% of the total).
Apart from the banks, other creditors include the Institute of Social Security (€20 million) to with outstanding payments and interest) and Fazenda Nacional (€5.5 million).
Founded in 1918 in Porto, Soares da Costa grew into one of the largest Portuguese construction companies employing 8,000. In 2005 Manuel Fino bought 71% of the builder for €70 million and sold it on to the Angolan entrepreneur António Mosquito IN 2013 who in turn sold it in 2017 with Soares da Costa remaining in the hands of is CEO, Joaquim Fitas.