|By TAP Staff| The Dubai International Financial Centre Court appointed Philip Bowers and Neville Kahn of advisory firm Deloitte as joint provisional liquidators of Portuguese financial group Espirito Santo’s Dubai subsidiary ES Bankers (Dubai) Ltd (ESBD.
This came after the regulator was informed ESBD was “no longer able to meet its obligations and continue as a going concern”, the statement added.
The DIFC action is the latest in a series of international regulatory actions taken against the family’s collapsed business empire.
The family’s problems have been escalating since accounting irregularities were identified at one of its holdings earlier this year, leading to a 4.9 billion-euro bailout for Banco Espirito Santo, once Portugal’s largest listed bank, and global actions to contain the fall-out in multiple jurisdictions.
Last month DFSA froze deposits at the bank as its solvency had been “seriously comprised” by the failure of the group’s Swiss unit to repay deposits.
Switzerland’s financial regulator, FINMA, said the following day that it had initiated bankruptcy proceedings against Banque Privee Espirito Santo (BPES) due to the family’s inability to be able to recapitalize the business.
FINMA was already investigating BPES with a focus on its role in distributing securities and financial products to the wider Espirito Santo group.
