Banco de Fomento and the Economy Ministry are not the police and cannot act on rumors, Economy and Maritime Minister António Costa Silva said in response to questions about the bank’s (interrupted) investment in holding Mario Ferreira. The Minister spoke this Wednesday, September 28, at a hearing before the Parliamentary Committee on the Economy, Public Works, Planning and Housing, at the request of the PSD.

MP Mariana Mortagua of Bloco de Esquerda questioned the minister in charge of Banco Português de Fomento (BPF) about the owner of the Douro Azul travel cruise company, Media Capital, the owner of TVI and CNN, and several real estate projects. namely in connection with BPF’s controversial €40 million funding for the holding company Pluris, which it ultimately withdrew in favor of a capital increase from its own funds.

The parliamentarian recalled that the support of 40 million euros will be provided by Pluris, holding Mario Ferreira who brings these businesses together and the money should be invested in the tourism business, hinting at the closeness of the decision makers at Banco de Fomento to Mario Ferreira himself, in “a set of connections that bother and worry us.”

“I understand the questions you raise,” the minister said in response, “but we cannot act based on suspicions and rumors (…) Neither Banco de Fomento nor the Ministry are the police.”

“Investment flows should be directed to important sectors of the national economy” and “I was told that, despite the fact that they holding”, Under the supply agreement, the funds will be used for tourism activities, he said. But he noted that we cannot allow the misuse of funds, “even if it is one euro.”

Regarding the connections of BFP members holding the same positions on the boards of directors with connections to Mario Ferreira, Costa Silva said: “I do not agree with the culture of general suspicion just because of a few connections” (…) the fact of having contact with other people does not looks like a reason to be suspicious.”

“I don’t have a single element that allows me to get a negative rating,” he concluded.

Disappointment of the private manager in the public sector

Among the complaints about the slowness of the decision on public affairs – “if you want my personal opinion, I would like things to go much faster”, he said, “because I know that the salary must be paid” – Costa Silva left some news regarding the programs Belarusian Popular Front, with an emphasis on the announcement of the results of the Consolidar program, which is scheduled for release on Wednesday.

The programme, which has been revised upwards from 250 million euros to 500 million euros, aims to encourage investment in small and medium-sized enterprises and medium caps (mid-cap companies) impacted by the covid-19 pandemic but economically viable through venture capital funds managed by financial intermediaries.

The results of Consolidar will be announced tomorrow [quinta-feira] the Development Bank itself,” and the minister says he has “some confidence that this program can be transformative.”

He attacked what he called “the Portuguese smallest syndrome”: if small and medium-sized companies do not start mergers and acquisitions, thus gaining scale, “we will not be able to compete in international markets.”

At the parliamentary hearings this Wednesday, a deputy from the Liberal Initiative confronted the Minister of Economy with the fact that the results of the Consolidar had already been published in website from BPF last weekend, but in the meantime deleted something that Costa Silva said he didn’t know about.

On February 18, BPF announced that the program had received 33 applications submitted by venture capital and venture capital management companies, totaling more than 1,300 million euros of investment to create equity funds. allocation of more than 3,100 million euros.

At a parliamentary hearing on September 8, Beatrice Freitas, chairman of the BNF executive committee, said that the initial appropriation of 250 million euros for the Consolidar program would be increased “to a much larger amount”, meanwhile set 500 million euros, justifying the increase in funding “by a very significant demand ”, registered by the initiative.

The Strategic Recapitalization Program, which aims to fund strategic non-financial companies impacted by Covid-19, said in response to the lack of applicants that “we need to consider why a small number of companies are not applying for the program. (…) we are looking at it to see how it is with the new administration and there may be some flexibility with some criteria,” he said.

However, Costa Silva described the BPF as a bank “not designed to compete with commercial banks” and that recent developments would make it “highly likely”. [tenhamos] a better development bank, more market-oriented and more in line with what we want for the Portuguese economy,” he predicted.