Joe Berardo
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José Manuel Rodrigues "Joe" Berardo GCIH, ComIH (born 4 July 1944), is a Portuguese and South African businessman, investor, and art collector. According to Portuguese magazine '' Exame'', he had an estimated net worth of €598 million in 2010, making him one of the wealthiest people in Portugal at the time. Starting around the 2010–2014 Portuguese financial crisis when both the Portuguese Republic finances and banking system collapsed, he has been involved in several controversies and legal issues which have led to the arrestment of his bank accounts, his companies' assets and himself due to ongoing legal investigations.


Life


Early life

Berardo was born in 1944 at Santa Luzia,
Funchal Funchal () officially Funchal City (), is the capital, largest city and a Municipality (Portugal), municipality in Portugal's Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it ...
,
Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...
, Portugal, the son of Manuel Berardo Gomes and Ana Rodrigues. Berardo left school when he was 13 years old and got a low-ranked job in the winery sector of Madeira wine. At the age of 18, he emigrated to South Africa where he worked in horticulture distribution and eventually set up large commercial ventures, becoming at the end of the 20th century one of the most renowned and wealthiest Portuguese entrepreneurs. In South Africa, he created Egoli Consolidated Mines Ltd, a
gold extraction Gold extraction is the extraction of gold from dilute ores using a combination of chemical processes. Gold mining produces about 3600 tons annually, and another 300 tons is produced from recycling. Since the 20th century, gold has been principal ...
company. Initially, the gold extraction was performed using low-value waste lands that were apparently being ignored. Later, the mining company started to deal with diamond mining as well. Berardo returned to Portugal in 1986.Biography of José Berardo
, in Diário Económico


Return to Portugal

As a very wealthy
stock investor A stock trader or equity trader or share trader, also called a stock investor, is a person or company involved in trading equity securities and attempting to profit from the purchase and sale of those securities. Stock traders may be an inve ...
, Joe Berardo was a central personality on the Portuguese stock exchange in the 2000s, and became noted for his remarks as activist shareholder and the
media frenzy Media circus is a colloquial metaphor or idiom describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to b ...
it generated at times. His businesses included hotels, tobacco, animal food, telecommunications, banking and wines. Berardo's estimated total wealth, including stock in large Portuguese banking and telecommunications companies, was at a time at over €1.9 billion. Berardo made long-term investments in large companies such as Millennium BCP bank and
Portugal Telecom Altice Portugal S.A. (formerly known as PT Portugal) is the largest telecommunications service provider in Portugal. Since 2 June 2015 the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Altice, a multinational cable and telecommunications company ...
(PT) telecommunications operator, which were both listed on the Euronext Lisbon. In 2006, he took a prominent part in the struggle against Sonae.com's very publicized takeover bid over Portugal Telecom. Sonae.com's takeover bid opposing
Belmiro de Azevedo Belmiro Mendes de Azevedo (17 February 1938 – 29 November 2017) was a Portuguese entrepreneur, ranked by Forbes as the 605th richest person in the world (2008), and 3rd richest in Portugal, with an estimated wealth of US$ 2 billion. He owned a ...
(founder and historical chairman of
Sonae Sonae is a multinational business group headquartered in Maia, Portugal. It operates in 90 countries, working in various sectors, among which retail (food, electronics, and fashion), real estate, media and telecommunications, technology investme ...
holding company) and his son Paulo Azevedo (head officer of Sonae.com telecommunications operator at the time) to the investor Berardo and PT's administrators Zeinal Bava and Henrique Granadeiro, failed. In June 2007, Berardo made a bid for 60% of Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Futebol, S.A.D.'s shares at €3.50 a share, a 30% premium to the recent share price. But the price was well below the €5 a share set at Benfica's
IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in May 2007, when after an initial flurry of optimism the shares fell steadily to below €3 apiece, hammered hard by the team's fourth-place finish in the
Portuguese Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...
and the failure to make any great gains in European competition. Berardo's bid was not hostile, as reports said the Benfica management had been informed in advance and was generally in favor of the offer. Overall, the bid was worth some €31.5 million and was conditional on Berardo netting 50% of the company plus one share, to ensure control. The bid valued S.L. Benfica - Futebol, S.A.D. at €52.5 million. However, Berardo did not exclude a major stake in the Futebol, S.A.D., which could have been achieved within the 33%
free float In the context of stock markets, the public float or free float represents the portion of Share (finance), shares of a corporation that are in the hands of public investors as opposed to locked-in shares held by promoters, company officers, control ...
of publicly traded stock that was issued in the stock market in May 2007. Berardo, who is a paying member of S.L. Benfica (''sócio'') and a declared supporter of the club, failed to become the largest individual stockholder in the club's S.A.D., since only about 1% of the intended stock was sold to him as of the 20 August 2007 deadline. After his failed attempt to bid on Benfica, Berardo refocused his attention on his hometown club Club Sport Marítimo, of which has also declared his support for and is a registered member also. On 17 November 2007, during the club's 97th anniversary celebration, he was honoured with a silver medal to commemorate his 25 years as a Marítimo member. He used the occasion to announce his interest in the clubs' new stadium plans, the Estádio do Marítimo, and offer his aid as a "supporter with passion" for the club.


Art collection

Berardo is one of the leading contemporary art collectors in Portugal. An inveterate collector, he started as a schoolboy with stamps, postcards and matchboxes, and later transitioned to modern and contemporary art in the 1980s. His various collections, which include art deco and Chinese porcelain, encompass more than 40,000 works, of which some 1,200 are by well-known modern and contemporary artists with a reported value of $750 million. Much of his art collection has in the past been used as collateral to borrow from banks.Colin Gleadel (13 September 2010)
Jose Berardo interview for Vilamoura sculpture park in the Algarve
''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
''.
Berardo went public with his collection in 1997, displaying works at an old casino in Sintra, and then at the Centro Cultural de Belém cultural center, in
Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
. By agreement with the
Portuguese Government Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
, a foundation (''Fundação de Arte Moderna e Contemporânea—Colecção Berardo'') was created to support the housing of his art collection of roughly 1,800 worksSeth Sherwood (18 February 2011)
In Lisbon, Sowing the Seeds of Culture
''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''.
at the Centro Cultural de Belém. Much as the Spanish state did with the
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (, ; named after its founder, Baron Heinrich Thyssen, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Museo del Prado, Prado Museum on one of the city ...
in Madrid, the government agreed to house part of his collection and took a 10-year option to buy 862 paintings and sculptures for 316 million euros, based on a
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
valuation in 2006. The Museu Colecção Berardo was inaugurated on 25 June 2007. Berardo's 35-hectare sculpture park in Quinta dos Loridos, north of Lisbon, opened in phases since 2006. When he read about the
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’s destruction of Afghanistan's enormous stone Buddhas in Bamiyan in 2001, he bought a massive range of Buddhist statues, and created the ''Buddha Eden Gardens'' (about 45 minutes outside of Lisbon). In 2011, Berardo set up the ''Aliança Underground Museum'', a paid (5€ minimum) exhibition of tiles, ethnographic art, ceramics, minerals and fossils in an unused tunnel on a winemaker's property in Sangalhos. In 2012, an exhibition of works from Berardo's Modern and contemporary collection, including pieces by
Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...
,
Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...
and
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
, was on show at the Gary Nader Art Centre in Miami, Florida.


Controversies and legal issues

Throughout his life, Berardo has been related to several controversial situations that have reached the media: * In 1990, Berardo was summoned to the Commission of Inquiry van Zyl for the illegal export of
cycad Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants o ...
s, diverting them from the Transvaal to
Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...
, and declared the value of the plants for less than one tenth of the value their purchase. The same Commission points to a close relationship between Berardo and
Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English:  , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
leader and Foreign Minister
Pik Botha Roelof Frederik "Pik" Botha, (27 April 1932 – 12 October 2018) was a South African politician who served as the country's foreign minister in the last years of the apartheid era, the longest-serving in South African history. Known as a lib ...
as facilitator of these operations. * In 2007, he increased his stake in BCP using a € 1 billion loan in the context of a "war" for power with the other shareholders. Suspicious links have been reported with the funding banks - BCP, of which it is the chairman of the Compensation and Welfare Board, CGD and BES - which have done so against a guarantee of only 75% of the Berardo Collection (valued at 316 million euros in 2007) * In 2008, Berardo appeared in the press related to the real estate speculation that he would have made in the Alvor River (located in the Monchique Range), having the price of the Quinta da Rocha estate passed from 500 thousand to 14 million euros.


CGD Affair

* In 2009, he was not required to regularize the interest of the 2007 loan, by the new management of Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), since if this were not done, the guarantees would have to be activated with the result that the state bank, given the financial vehicle used, would hold a very significant stake (10%) of BCP. * On 1 February 2012, it was declared by CGD,
Banco Espírito Santo Banco Espírito Santo (, BES) was a Portugal, Portuguese bank based in Lisbon that on 3 August 2014 was split in two banks: Novo Banco, which kept its healthy operations, and a "bad bank" to keep its toxic assets. It once was the second-largest ...
and Banco Comercial Português that they had given up the money they owed. * In 2019, it became public that Berardo owes 980 million euros to Banco Comercial Português,
Novo Banco Novo Banco, SA, trading as Novobanco (, ), is a major Portuguese financial bank headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Following the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, Novobanco has been designated as a Significant Institut ...
and CGD. This prompted the Assembly of the Republic to hold an inquiry of Berardo, within the inquiry committee on the CGD bank's management, after which the Portuguese parliament decided to forward Berardo's declarations to the Public Ministry, in order to start the investigation on potential crimes committed. **In June CGD requested in court, obtained favourable decision, the arrestment of Berardo's assets and bank accounts owned by his company. The court resorted to the uncommon procedure of disregarding of the collective legal personality of Berardo's company. **In July Berardo's 10 million euro real estate, owned through Berardo Foundation, Monte Palace Gardens, located in
Funchal Funchal () officially Funchal City (), is the capital, largest city and a Municipality (Portugal), municipality in Portugal's Madeira, Autonomous Region of Madeira, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a population of 105,795, making it ...
, was also put under interlocutory injunction. Under this injunction it is impossible for Berardo, or his foundation, to sell the property until its market value is determined and how his debt is to be paid.


Arrest

In June 2021, Berardo became a named suspect (''
arguido ''Arguido'' (; if male) or ''arguida'' (; if female), normally translated "named suspect" or "formal suspect", is a status in Portuguese type legal systems, including those of Portugal, Macau, Angola and Mozambique. It is given to a person whom t ...
'' status in the Portuguese legal system) and was arrested by members of the
Polícia Judiciária The (; PJ; ) is the national criminal investigation police agency of Portugal, focused in fighting serious crimes, including homicides, kidnapping, organized crime, terrorism, illegal drug trade, corruption, cybercrime and financial crime. It i ...
for alleged fraud committed against the bank
Caixa Geral de Depósitos Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) () is a Portugal, Portuguese state-owned banking corporation, and the largest bank in Portugal, established in Lisbon in 1876. CGD now has presence in 23 countries spanning four continents through branches, repres ...
(CGD) and a number of other
financial crime Financial crime is crime committed against property, involving the unlawful conversion of the ownership of property (belonging to one person) to one's own personal use and benefit. Financial crimes may involve fraud (cheque fraud, credit card f ...
s.


Honours and awards


National honours

* Commander of the
Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...
,
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
(13 March 1985) * Grand-Cross of the
Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...
,
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
(4 October 2004)


Disciplinary procedure

Under the CGD affair, the Portuguese Orders National Council was convened on 17 May 2019, presided by Manuela Ferreira Leite, to initiate a disciplinary procedure on whether the President of the Republic should or not strip Berardo from the ranks of the Order of Prince Henry. The Council's President appointed the former President of the Assembly of the Republic, Mota Amaral, to lead the investigation related to disciplinary procedure, which included collection of written and audio material from the Portuguese parliament's CDG Affair inquiry committee. The disciplinary procedure results are expected to be presented to Portuguese Orders National Council on 20 December 2019. Since the disciplinary procedure was initiated, Berardo has publicly apologized for his conduct during the Assembly of the Republic's inquiry.


See also

*
Novo Banco Novo Banco, SA, trading as Novobanco (, ), is a major Portuguese financial bank headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. Following the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, Novobanco has been designated as a Significant Institut ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berardo, Joe Living people People from Funchal Madeiran businesspeople Portuguese businesspeople Portuguese billionaires Portuguese philanthropists Portuguese stock traders Museum founders 20th-century art collectors 21st-century art collectors 20th-century Portuguese businesspeople 21st-century Portuguese businesspeople 1944 births Deltiologists