Minister says that the previous government wanted to privatize TAP in the “dead of night” – TVI24

The Minister of Planning, Pedro Marques, argued Friday that the aviation regulator’s opinion gives reason to criticism of the privatization of TAP made by the previous government “in the dead of night.”

“This opinion gives reason to PS, now the Government, when he criticized the hasty manner in which it was completed that phase of privatization of TAP. the idea of ​​the previous government was privatizing the rush to privatize the dead of night and to privatize with the government already fired “, said Pedro Marques.

the Minister of Planning and Infrastructure spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the parliamentary rounds of PS in Vila Real, commenting on the decision of the Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) to implement the TAP and Portugalia precautionary measures to prevent the taking of extraordinary management decisions or have significant impact on the assets, the activity and operation of the two companies.

“it also gave us reason to terms initiated a negotiation process to regain strategic control of the company, to recover a majority stake in TAP for stability and future TAP . If we had not been able to conclude this Memorandum of Understanding would be a much more complicated situation, the uncertainty would be much higher, “, said Pedro Marques.

The Minister stressed that the opinion of the National Civil Aviation authority (ANAC) has no impact on the current negotiation of the government process to recover 50% of TAP, or in the daily operation of the Portuguese airline.

Asked whether the opinion released today calls into question negotiations already made by the current executive, Pedro Marques replied: “no, in the sense that does not mean to share this safely negotiating because we recompusemos capital structure, governance structure and what was negotiated in the memorandum of understanding between the State and private shareholders would always have to be the subject of a new notification to the FAA on which the Administrator will have to pronounce “.

” This has to do with the previous stage of privatization, made by the PSD / CDS government “, he said.

According to the minister,” TAP will live maintaining its normal management “and” will continue to make your daily operation. “

This will happen, ” without making structural changes, which in any case would not be substantial at the stage where we are because would be to negotiate the change that privatization made by the PSD / CDS government, the detail changes, since we had already decided that would be a new capital structure, a new administration “, said Pedro Marques.

“the strategic recovery of the company from the signed memorandum will now proceed with a proper analysis and of course taking into account the opinion of the regulator” he said.

the regulator of civil aviation said in a statement that precautionary measures are taken as part of the purchase notification process by Gateway consortium 61% TAP’s capital and aim to “ensure that, until it is given the final decision under the same procedure, does not materialize a situation of fait contrary that the rules”.

the ANAC cautioned that at this stage, “are not appreciated the potential impacts of a new control structure and financing negotiated between the Portuguese State and the Atlantic Gateway, constant Memorandum of Understanding signed on February 6, 2016″ signed with the Government.

the agreement reached between the Government and the Gateway provides that the State shall pay EUR 1.9 million to keep 50% of the company (instead of 34%) while the private consortium from 61% of the company’s capital to 45% and may reach 50%, with the acquisition of capital available to workers.