Lisbon, Nov. 8, 2024 (Lusa) - Portugal's minister for infrastructure said on Friday that there have been a dozen further expressions of interest in taking a stake in TAP, the national flag carrier, coming both from Europe and outside Europe, in what he said was a sign that the airline "is attractive" to investors.
In addition to the "public meetings" that have taken place with officials from the three European companies that had already expressed interest in the deal - IAG, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa - the government has also received "expressions of interest from other funds as well," the minister, Miguel Pinto Luz, said during a parliamentary committee hearing on the 2025 budget bill.
"There have been several - more than a dozen, both [from] inside and outside Europe," he said.
According to the minister, this is a "sign that TAP is, in fact, attractive" and that the right-of-centre coalition government must be careful when selling this asset.
He also said that the government intends to conclude the process of reprivatising the airline next year.
On 10 October, Portugal's minister of finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, said at a news conference on the draft state budget for 2025, that the government was in preliminary dialogue with the three airline groups that have publicly expressed an interest in taking a stake in TAP, but he did not specify a date for the privatisation.
"We're in dialogue with the three airlines [Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and IAG] that have shown an interest in the company's privatisation," he said. "This is a preliminary dialogue: we're analysing the wishes of each of these companies."
Miranda Sarmento reiterated that the government has two objectives for the sale of the flag carrier: firstly, the maintenance of the Lisbon hub and the development of TAP's network of routes, and secondly, recovering for the state in the medium or long term some of the money that it injected into enabling the airline to recover after the disruption resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the end of October, the minister for infrastructure confirmed that he had been taking part in meetings with parties interested in potentially taking a stake in TAP and that the government's intention was "by the end of 2025" to complete the process, although this might not involve selling off all of the company's shares.
"The intention is to achieve one-hundred-percent privatisation, but we have to listen to the market," said Pinto Luz, speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of a residential complex in Vila do Conde, in Porto district. "We have to value the company's assets and maximise the proceeds of the sale, with a strategy to return to the Portuguese the 3.2 billion euros that were injected by taxpayers."
Asked about what sizes of stakes in the company the potentially interested investors might intend to take, Pinto Luz said that there were several alternatives on the table.
"Some are more interested in a path to a majority position, others are willing to start in a minority position, others want a majority position," he said. "We'll reflect on this to find the best solution."
MPE/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
