The Economy Minister António Pires de Lima, will attend the ceremony Wednesday marking the signing of the sales contract of the TAP consortium that unites Humberto Pedrosa and David Neeleman. However, until the deal is finalized, there are still many stones along the way: the approval of regulators, will the PS must undo the privatization and the complaint that the unsuccessful candidate, Germán Efromovich, aims to give the European Commission. But the finance minister says he is relaxed about a successful closing of the transaction. Before the ceremony TAP, the economy minister will travel to Luanda, where he will on Monday, initialed with his counterpart, Gourgel, a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of business observatory of both countries. About this observatory, born nearly two years after being announced, underlines its importance but also says he does not expect “miracles”.
TAP turns out to be privatized already in an emergency situation, that no longer seemed to be alternative. Why only now, when he said that he did not want to continue the process too close to the elections?
What is said that privatization, boost up, should take place before the end of 2014 and was That’s what happened. The result of privatization was good, not the eye even as a lesser evil. It is a privatization resulting in a minimum capitalization of the company of 338 million euros, a shareholder partner who has know-how in air transport and complementarity with TAP, with a minimum fitting 16 million euro, which could grow to 150 million – although not like to speculate on values that are not guaranteed. And it was done in compliance with all important conditions, whether political, economic, preserving brand and hub and job security.
Can you tell that if left to get TAP to a situation limit …
is true that the company is living a tense liquidity situation since there are plenty of months, but it did not affect the interests of operators who competed nor the quality of proposals. In fact, the government has even more demanding in terms of capitalization securities of the company.
But meant that the financial aspects of the proposals were even more valued than the strategic component …
Because there was a general perception that, from a strategic point of view, the two proposals were good. As were two competitors with a very large complementary operations with TAP, the strategic issue was naturally well settled. The difference between the competitors there was more at the level of capitalization and guarantees that each one presented to the deal.
TAP at this point is still a state-owned company that lives, as referred serious cash flow problems. However, there are about 120 million held in Venezuela and Angola. What has made the government to recover this money?
are actions that have been conducted directly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the political core of the government. We intend, of course, recover these values to TAP. We are talking about two different situations, but would not want to go into consideration of any of them.
With regard to the preservation of collateral hub [hub], tratando- is a strategic asset not only for the company but also for the country, is not a risk you put a shelf life of 30 years in the contract to be signed with the winner of the privatization?
Sustainability the hub National has to be guaranteed by the very competitiveness of the country, which has the ability to remain as an attractive destination in terms of airport mobility. These agreements must have legal deadlines for each of the obligations and 30 years is a time that I find very comfortable.
This term seems to clash with the idea that the government went from the hub would be something eternal …
This assurance did not exist, we now have it for 30 years. The best guarantee for the existence of hub is to have an airline that acts as a hub of links between Europe and Africa and between Europe and America. And it is very well secured with the acceptance of this proposal.
While on paper Humberto Pedrosa has most of the winning consortium capital is essential that the true architect of this operation is David Neeleman. It believes that pass the scrutiny of the European Commission, which has been particularly attentive to these control issues in aviation?
We look tranquility decisions in order to make the closing of this transaction. Mr. Humberto Pedrosa is a person with very relevant services to the Portuguese economy and in recent decades has been stated in the transport sector as a great entrepreneur. It is a very positive and indisputable factor present in that consortium.
For the expectation of further engagement with the sale of TAP, which was dependent on an ambitious goal of company management (achieve a result 280 million adjusted operating in 2015), should look to this possibility sparingly?
Speaking of EUR 16 million [the amount that is secured with the sale of 61% of the capital and the option over 34%], I put the expectation of additional plug a moderate field. The fundamental reasons for the privatization does not relate so much to the cash inflow, we knew it would not be very high, but mainly for strategic positioning, the development plan and the capitalization of the company.
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