PCP finds it unacceptable that the government only learned about Inapa’s accounts this month.

This Monday, the PCP questioned the finance minister about the declaration of insolvency of Inapa, finding unacceptable the government’s statement that it only learned about the treasury’s situation this month, when the state is the company’s largest shareholder.

In a question addressed to Joaquim Miranda Sarmento through the Assembly of the Republic, the parliamentary leader of the PCP, Paula Santos, points out that in May 2024, Inapa IPG presented negative net results of almost eight million euros for 2023, “which contrast with the almost 18 million profits recorded in 2022”.

According to PCP, the decline in results recorded from 2022 to 2023, and presented in the company’s “Annual Report 2023” dated April this year, “did not place the company in a situation of imminent insolvency, nor did it have a “prospect for 2024” question.

“There are even references to historical data on stock exchange transactions in 2023 (314 million shares), which can only be compared with 2009. The situation with the restructuring in the German subsidiary has already been mentioned,” we read in this message. question.

Noting that Inapa IPG employs around 200 people in Portugal and “around 1,500 people distributed across the group’s various companies abroad,” PCP also said Parpública owns 44.89% of the company’s shares.

“In other words, the state is the largest shareholder of this company, so it is unacceptable for the PSD/CDS government to claim that it only learned about the company’s financial situation on July 11, the day the shares were suspended on the CMVM stock exchange,” the party defends.

For the PCP, “either the state, as the majority shareholder, provided coverage for the company’s operations outside the country that led to the insolvency declaration, or, despite the state having a controlling stake in the company, its main management options were determined by private criteria.”

“Faced with this situation, the country must know how a Portuguese group, in which the state is the largest shareholder, could end up in this situation because of its operations in Germany? How did the state protect the public interest? What measures do you plan to take over the next few years?

Among the questions addressed to the Minister of State and Finance, the PCP asks when the government was alerted to the situation of the Inapa group and what “measures have been taken through Parpública to ensure the viability of the group’s companies and the group of companies itself”.

PCP also wants to know how the government intends to intervene to protect the company’s 200 jobs, as well as “what priorities have been given by the state/PR to the company to protect the public interest.”

“On what basis does the government base its claim that Inapa Group is not developing a strategic activity for the country, when the importance and weight of the paper industry in Portugal is known?” the party further asks.

The PCP also submitted a request for access to “all opinions of Parpública, the General Directorate of the Treasury and Finance (DGTF) and the Technical Unit for Monitoring and Monitoring the Public Business Sector (UTAM) on the Inapa group, prepared since 2019.”

The party also wants to see information “on all requests for funding and financial restructuring from the German subsidiary (Inapa Deutschland) and the group holding company,” as well as “the minutes of all meetings of the Board of Directors of Parpública and the Executive Committee of Parpública, in which Inapa- Investimentos, Participações e Gestão, S.A., is mentioned since 2019.”

In a statement to the market on Sunday evening, Inapa announced it would file for insolvency “in the next few days.”

The company said it had failed to find funds for a “short-term cash shortage” of 12 million euros at its German subsidiary Inapa Deutschland and that, given this, the board had concluded “that Inapa Deutschland IPG is in imminent and imminent insolvency”, in accordance with Portuguese law.

The Finance Ministry, for its part, said on Monday that Parpública would not provide Inapa with the requested funding and would monitor the company’s insolvency.