“Our balance sheet shows a total of about €3.8 billion, while our liabilities to our associates is about €3.1 billion”, he said, adding that the institution’s assets such as real estate are under-valued.
Tomás Correia said these calculations “offer tranquillity” and show “strict, conservative management” that has been conducted at the Associação Mutualista.
The Público daily paper said on Tuesday that at the end of 2015, the Associação Mutualista Montepio Geral had €107 million of negative equity, meaning it owed more than it owned, which in accounting terms is the equivalent of technical bankruptcy. This situation placed pressure on Caixa Económica Montepio Geral, the main shareholder of Associação Montepio, as it needed to increase the capital.
As the newspaper explained, ‘technical bankruptcy’ does not mean the entity has to be liquidated, but measures have to be taken such as a capital injection by the members.
Associação Mutualista Montepio Geral is at the top of the Grupo Montepio and its main subsidiary is the Caixa Económica Montepio Geral (CEMG) bank.