Following ten years with Grupo Banco Espírito Santo, Sobrinho became one of the youngest ever directors of Banco Espírito Santo in Lisbon and was subsequently tasked with founding the subsidiary company in Angola, Banco Espírito Santo Angola. Throughout his time at BESA, the bank received multiple awards, including the World Finance award as the Best Bank in Angola in 2009, and Global Finance Magazine's award as the Best Bank in Angola in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. In July 2014, 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 mandate of previous chief executive Álvaro Sobrinho, who left the post in October 2012. In 2015 Sobrinho was reported to have beaten the allegations and has continued to battle for compensation from the Expresso news outlet.
Banco Valor
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.
Investments
Sobrinho also 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 sported to have driven an investment related to exploration drilling in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Sobrinho is also the owner of Holdimo, a company with 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 poorperformance 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 15 May that year.
Philanthropy
Sobrinho is involved with philanthropy in Africa, as the Founding Chairman of the Planet Earth Institute in London. The Planet Earth Institute is accredited to the United Nations Environmental Programme and its mission is the "scientific independence of Africa". In 2015, it was announced that Sobrinho had been appointed by the World Bank as their Business Champion for African Science. Sobrinho has also donated to other Africa-focused charities and programmes, including the Duke of Edinburgh International Award and GAVI Alliance. The PlanetEarth Institute launched the Planet Earth Institute Foundation in Mauritius in 2015, with Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, former President of Mauritius, as its Vice-Chairman. The PEI Foundation has awarded scholarships to Mauritian researchers.
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 by the court of appeal because of a lack of evidence.
Monte Branco
Sobrinho was also a shareholder of Swisswealth 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.
