Lisbon, Jan. 21, 2025 (Lusa) - Inapa's former CEO, Frederico de Moser Lupi, said on Tuesday that alternatives to the company's demise were sought in the market and that Parpública "always" accompanied the company's activity.
"We looked for alternatives on the market several times. [...] I took the initiative to look for an investor interested in participating in Inapa's capital," he said during the Budget, Finance and Public Administration Committee hearing at Chega's request.
Frederico de Moser Lupi also said that there were at least 188 records of interactions between Inapa's management and Parpública, the manager of state holdings who they sent "a total of seven requests to for funding" since 2020, he said.
Inapa filed for insolvency in July due to a "short-term cash shortage" of its subsidiary Inapa Deutschland GmbH for €12 million, for which no solution was found.
However, Frederico de Moser Lupi said today that the "private shareholders have agreed to participate in this short-term solution".
On 24 July, in a response to Lusa, the Ministry of Finance said that it only found out about the "critical situation" Inapa was in on 11 July (when the shares were suspended) and that it was then that it called Parpública, who explained that Inapa had requested an injection of €12 million for immediate cash needs in the German operation when it already had a request for €15 million for restructuring.
Because of this information, opinions were requested from Parpública, the Directorate-General for Treasury and Finance (DGTF) and the Technical Unit for Accompanying and Monitoring the Public Business Sector (UTAM), with the Finance Department stating that the three entities concluded that "the proposal did not fulfil solid conditions, nor did it demonstrate the economic and financial viability that would say that the State would be reimbursed".
At today's hearing, the former CEO of the paper distributor said that he had sent three emails asking for an urgent meeting with the secretary of state for finance and that he had received no response to the first two requests.
When asked to explain what caused the cash flow failure in the German operation, which triggered the insolvency, Frederico de Moser Lupi said it was "a business in which there is seasonality".
"In Germany after 2023, we realised that the restructuring plan had to be strengthened due to the fall in paper sales. We drew up a new plan which included reducing 14 logistics centres to a total of seven and making dozens of workers redundant," he said.
However, in May, the company ended the month with sales down by 14% due to "seasonality," and Inapa's management was "informed" by those in charge of the German operation that there was a lack of cash at the time.
The former director also pointed out that these figures were audited by "an independent company", referring to PwC.
The insolvency petition was filed with the Commercial Court of the West Lisbon District Court at the end of July 2024.
In August, the Treasury dismissed the Parpública board, led by José Realinho de Matos, and chose Joaquim Cadete to succeed him.
The dismissal was justified by the administration being more reactive than preventive, as well as a failure to provide the ministry with timely information, according to Jornal de Negócios.
Chega's petition also includes a request to hear the former president of Parpública, José Realinho de Matos, who will be heard today, and the current Secretary of State for the Treasury and Finance, João Silva Lopes.
SCR/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
