# Álvaro Sobrinho

Álvaro de Oliveira Madaleno Sobrinho (born 1962) is a Portuguese-Angolan banker and businessman who developed his career in Portugal. He became a director at the Portuguese bank Banco Espírito Santo, which went bankrupt in 2014.
He went on to lead Banco Valor Angola, investing in a number of businesses in Africa, and invested in sports club Sporting CP and two Portuguese newspapers. He also founded the Planet Earth Institute Foundation in Mauritius with the President of Mauritius.

## Early life and education

Sobrinho was born in Angola and moved to Portugal to study mathematics and statistics at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In Portugal, he met Ricardo Salgado who mentored him and helped to develop his career.

## Career

Following a decade-long tenure with Grupo Banco Espírito Santo, Sobrinho became a director of Banco Espírito Santo (BES) in Lisbon at the age of 38. Following this, he played a key role in creating the subsidiary in Angola, known as Banco Espírito Santo.
In 2013, Sobrinho took charge of Banco Valor Angola as its Executive Chairman, although later stood down from executive roles to focus on other business investments. Banco Valor is reportedly the 13th largest bank in Angola.
In July 2014, the Portuguese weekly newspaper Expresso reported that BESA did not know to whom it had extended loans worth US$5.7 billion— around 80 percent of its debt portfolio— during the tenure of its former chief executive Álvaro Sobrinho, who left the post in October 2012.
In 2015, Sobrinho was cleared of these allegations related to the collapse of the bank and has since pursued compensation from the Expresso news outlet.

## Personal life

Sobrinho holds large investments in telecommunications with YooMee Africa and the media industry with Newshold Group, as well as additional ventures, including publishing, manufacturing, retail, travel business, and renewable energies. In 2015, Sobrinho was reported to have driven an investment related to exploration drilling in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Sobrinho owns Holdimo, a company with (as of August 2017) the largest private shareholding of Portuguese sports club Sporting CP. In a 2018 interview, Sobrinho said that he and Holdimo would do "everything in their power" to remove the then-president of Sporting, Bruno de Carvalho, from his position, following the poor performance of the football team and tensions between supporters after the violent attack by Sporting fans on the team's players and manager at their training ground on May 15 that year.
Sobrinho is involved with philanthropy in Africa as the founding chairman of the Planet Earth Institute (PEI) in London. The Planet Earth Institute is accredited by the United Nations Environmental Programme, and its mission is the "scientific independence of Africa".
In 2015, Sobrinho was appointed as the Business Champion for African Science by the World Bank.
Sobrinho has donated to other Africa-focused charities and programs, including the Duke of Edinburgh International Award and GAVI Alliance.
Also in 2015, The Planet Earth Institute launched the Planet Earth Institute Foundation in Mauritius, with Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, former President of Mauritius, as its vice-chairman. The PEI Foundation awarded scholarships to Mauritian researchers.

## Allegations/Controversies
### Estoril Sol

Portuguese authorities had investigated Sobrinho when he was the chairman of Banco Espírito Santo Angola (BESA) in relation to his use of an overseas company to purchase six apartments in the Estoril Sol Residence complex in Lisbon, Portugal, with an initial payment of €9.5 million.
During the investigations, the apartments were seized by court order, but were later returned to Sobrinho due to lack of evidence.

### Monte Branco

Sobrinho was also a shareholder of Swiss wealth management company Akoya Asset Management, which featured briefly in the Monte Branco investigation into tax evasion.
Sobrinho ordered an investigation from the Swiss authorities, that cleared him and all non-executive shareholders of wrongdoing.