The Brazilian teak company that manages the plantations — and structurally fails to keep its promises to thousands of Dutch investors.
Floresteca S.A. — The parent company in Brazil
Floresteca S.A. is the Brazilian forestry company that manages and exploits the teak plantations near the city of Cuiabá in the state of Mato Grosso. The company is responsible for the entire process: from planting and maintaining the teak trees, to harvesting, processing, and selling the wood. It is the plantations of Floresteca S.A. in which Dutch investors have invested via Goodwood and ATF.
The value of the teak stands was estimated in 2006 by the independent agency SGS at approximately €2.4 billion. Floresteca itself published even higher valuations in 2010 and 2013: over €4 to €5 billion. By now, however, the company speaks of a value of no more than €0.5 billion. This enormous difference — from billions to hundreds of millions — has never been adequately explained to the thousands of Dutch investors who are entitled to a large part of these proceeds.
The company is now considered “technically bankrupt”: total debt is higher than equity, and a debt restructuring is necessary. For the investors who entrusted their money to this company, this is highly concerning.
Floresteca B.V. — The Dutch sales branch
Floresteca B.V. Netherlands is the Dutch subsidiary that sold financial products to Dutch investors. The range included bonds, Interest Certificates, Savings Interest Certificates, Annual Interest Certificates, and High Yield Notes — all backed by the teak wood on the plantations in Brazil.
A crucial detail is that Floresteca B.V. deliberately offered its products as bonds starting at €50,000. Because of this, the company fell outside the licensing requirement of the AFM — a structure deliberately aimed at operating without supervision. This gave Floresteca free rein to sell new products to Dutch investors without regulatory oversight.
Severe payment problems
Floresteca B.V. Netherlands has been struggling with severe payment problems for years. It involves more than €18 million in arrears of immediately due claims to investors. Investors who were entitled to payouts were constantly strung along with varying explanations: the trees need to grow longer, costs were higher than revenues, no buyers have been found yet, calculations are not yet finalized.
Suspension of payment
Floresteca B.V. Netherlands applied for a suspension of payment — a statutory arrangement for postponement of payment. The company offered an agreement to the creditors (bondholders), in which only a part of the debt would be compensated. In a vote, over 96% of the creditors voted in favor of the agreement, which was subsequently homologated (declared binding) by the Amsterdam District Court.
BFRG filed an appeal against this decision on behalf of 22 of the 839 creditors, because in our conviction the offered agreement was not in the interest of the defrauded investors. After all, the agreement means that investors only get a fraction of their investment back via this route.
Lack of clarity about proceeds
BFRG cannot deduce fundamental information from the reports of Floresteca as manager of the plantations. It is unclear what agreements ATF, SATT, and Floresteca entered into with each other, how financial flows developed, how the difference between final harvest and thinning harvests was handled, what the proceeds from the various harvests were, why the final harvest yield is much lower than expected, and how control was exercised over the activities of Floresteca S.A.
In addition, BFRG believes that, as far as it can ascertain, the entities involved have wrongfully failed to file annual accounts or filed incorrect ones. All this points to a structural lack of transparency that seriously harms the interests of investors.
Let op!
Dit is de laatste mogelijkheid om u vooralsnog als gedupeerde eiser aan te melden voor de schadeclaimprocedure om uw schade terug te vorderen via deze aankomende gerechtelijke procedure.
Bureau Fraude Recht & Geldzaken B.V. ontvangt de aanmeldingsformulieren van onze Stichting en zal u telefonisch benaderen om alle ins en outs met u bespreken. Meld u aan nu het nog kan!
