The new company will have Paulo Barradas, currently Norfin’s Chief Transaction Officer, as CEO and will benefit from the know-how, experience and capacity of Arrow’s other companies in Portugal (Whitestar and Norfin, which together manage around €12 billion in assets), as well as existing knowledge in other geographies of the Group. The mission, starting at the beginning of the year, will be to look for companies in difficulty, with defaulted debts, that have some economic viability, and to acquire these debts and then support the companies in their restructuring.

“There are currently significant and growing opportunities in the Portuguese market, which is why Arrow’s experience makes us well placed to offer good returns to investors, while also helping to restructure these companies. On the other hand, we also support the banks, which have these debts on their balance sheets and whose mission is not to restructure companies,” explains Paulo Barradas, CEO of the new company.

“The launch of this business vertical is another step in the process, begun with the acquisition of Norfin in 2018, at the time to address the real estate asset management market, of extending the intervention of the Arrow Global group to a segment of activity that has a growing and very relevant weight in the balance sheet of banks,” reinforces João Bugalho, Country CEO of Arrow Global for Portugal.

The investment needed to acquire these debts will come from Arrow’s fund, together with other institutional investors. The new company will have the expertise of specialists in the field. Pedro Ruas joins the project as Senior Advisor after 25 years’ experience in M&A, having supported investors such as Davidson Kempner, KKR, Anacap and Carval.

The management team will also include André David Nunes, CIO of Arrow in Portugal and João Bugalho, Country Manager of Arrow in the country and CEO of Whitestar.