Crédit Agricole files €1bn claims over BES collapse

France’s Crédit Agricole group has filed two lawsuits worth more than €1 billion in Portugal over the collapse of Banco Espírito Santon (BES), according to court records reviewed by ECO. The cases target former BES chairman Ricardo Salgado, former executive Amílcar Morais Pires and Rioforte, a non-financial arm of the Espírito Santo Group, in a move tied to one of Portugal’s biggest banking failures.

Both cases were filed in July with the Lisbon District Court. One was brought by Crédit Agricole itself and seeks €855 million, while the other was filed by group insurer Predica and claims €152.8 million.

ECO contacted the French financial group and Salgado’s defence to ask about the grounds for the lawsuits, but neither side commented.

Crédit Agricole was a long-standing partner of the Espírito Santo family and helped it regain control of BES in the early 1990s after the bank’s 1975 nationalisation. The French group later became the bank’s second-largest shareholder, at one point holding more than 20% through direct and indirect stakes.

Months before BES collapsed in 2014, Crédit Agricole and the Espírito Santo family unwound their joint holding structure and held separate positions in the bank. After a €1.045 billion capital increase in June that year, in which the French group invested only €10 million, its stake fell to below 15%. Shareholders then lost their investment when Banco de Portugal, the country’s central bank, placed BES into resolution on August 4.

Originally published at Eco.pt