The German company will seek to buy shares of the largest private shareholder in the Portuguese company, which ended 2019 in the red.
A new rapprochement in the European atmosphere? According to the Portuguese newspaper Journal de NegososGermany’s Lufthansa, the country’s standard daily business, is said to have started negotiations to buy shares of the major private shareholder of TAP Portugal.
These shares (45%) belong to Atlantic Gateway, a private consortium formed by businessman David Neleman and his Portuguese partner, Humberto Pedrosa. As a reminder, the Portuguese state owns 50% of the company.
And the economic newspaper adds, that the German company cooperated with the American company United Airlines for this occasion.
Contrasts
In response to a question by AFP, a Lufthansa spokesman declined to comment on “media speculation.” Tab also declined to comment.
However, the information appears credible because David Neelman and the Portuguese Socialist Government have differences in the TAP file. He even had to deny rumors that he wanted to quit TAP because of these differences.
The government particularly opposed the businessman’s plan to list the company on the stock exchange and expressed concern about the company’s strategy, whose investment policy is slow to produce positive results.
105 million losses in 2019
The Portuguese Airlines Group announced, today, Thursday, that it remained in the red zone in 2019 with a net loss of 105.6 million euros, compared to 118 million euros in 2018. A result that the company demonstrates through the renewal of its fleet, which is one of its hubs. A strategy to return to balance.
Last week, the Portuguese state warned TAP not to distribute bonuses to its executives despite the losses. The company had already angered the government last year by distributing 1.17 million euros in bonuses to 180 employees.
