New data on the headache it represents for Sandra Ortegathe richest woman in Spain, invests in the hotel Roommate. The consolidated accounts of Rosp La Coruñarecently filed in the commercial register, reveal that the crisis of the company of Kike Sarasola forced Rosalía Mera’s heiress to continue injecting millionaire loans into the business. And this although he is leaving, looking for a buyer for his 31% stake.
End of 2020, Rosp La Coruñathe investment arm of Ortega Mera, said it retains long-term loans with the hotel company of which it is a partner for a value of 27.5 million euros. From now on, the consolidated memory of the holding reveals that at the end of last year, in addition to maintaining the balance of this long-term loan, which amounts to 27.8 million, registers another loan, in this case short-term, of 60 million euros.
It must be taken into account that, in addition, Room Mate would be indebted to the estate of Sandra Ortega for the rents for the last two years of the hotels of the coruña company located in New York and Miami. Last May, it emerged that Rosp had launched the eviction proceedings because of this debt that according to Eldiariowould be around 10 million euros.
“Guarantees assumed vis-à-vis third parties”
The directors of Rosp La Coruna do not specify in the report why it was forced to take out a millionaire loan again last year from a company from which, in practice, it intends to escape. However, while not referring directly to Room Mate, they explain that at the end of fiscal 2020, Sandra Ortega’s assets were listed “as co-owner of credits and policies subscribed by some of its related companies for a cumulative amount of 56.8 million euros”. This is why, at the end of this exercise, the holding provisioned the same amount “to cover any contingencies that may arise from the commitments and obligations entered into”.
During the past year, 2021, Rosp La Coruña indicates that it had to assume “the return of the balances transferred in said operations”, applying for this the full amount provisioned for the previous year. This movement comes from theimpossibility of payment by the related company co-owner of the aforementioned operations”. The Ortega Mera entity concludes that, for this reason, “it has registered a loan with the aforementioned company for an amount of 56.8 million euros for commitments and guarantees made to third parties”.
Rosp Corunna’s consolidated report not only highlights the significant increase in loans that the company has granted to the Sarasola hotel company, but also exposes the problems that this investment has generated with the banking sector.
Bank millionaire claim
as already published Galician digital economyRosp’s accounts indicate that the group “received certain non-judicial claims of certain financial entities in which it is asked to take over the financial debts of related companies for an amount of about 150 million”.
Although it does not specify in the accounts where this debt comes from, these 150 million euros are directly linked to the credits to which different banking entities have contributed Roommate thanks to some letters of comfort or sponsorship letters with which Rosp Corunna supported the hotelier before the bank for the millionaire loans he received. This kind of guarantee ended up being the germ of the legal battle that the heiress of Rosalía Mera maintains with who was his historical number two, economist José Leyte.
Sandra Ortega has accused the executive of forging her signature on these letters of comfort without your consent in favor of Room Mate.
No provisions in the accounts
Despite the fact that last May a court in La Coruña agreed to provisionally file Rosp’s complaint against the economist on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence that he had forged his signature at the without the knowledge of his boss, those of Ortega Mera have decided not to include anything in your accounts in respect of these bank receivables.
“The sole administrator of the parent company has not granted any type of guarantee for the said debtsfor which there is strong evidence and, therefore, does not consider it necessary to make the said sums available“, underline.