LISBON (Reuters) – Portuguese Finance Minister Fernando Medina said on Thursday that the government has appointed state-owned holding company Parapublica to select two independent experts to evaluate TAP before its privatization that could begin in July.
The state owns 100% of TAP, which it is currently restructuring under a €3.2 billion bailout plan approved by Brussels, and the government is considering a full or partial sale.
“These two independent assessments are mandatory before the privatization is launched. We hope to be able to approve the privatization before the summer in July,” Fernando Medina told the press.
He said the government was looking to preserve TAP’s “intrinsic value, as a company that generates value from its Lisbon hub,” also noting that the airline returned to profit in 2022, earlier than anticipated in its restructuring plan.
Reuters reported two weeks ago that Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways owner IAG were laying the groundwork for potential deals on TAP, surveying local communications agencies and legal advisors.
“The various expressions of interest are known. We expect them to materialize in large numbers when we get to the proposal stage,” said Fernando Medina.
He specified that the final value of TAP would depend on the synergies that each candidate could achieve with the Portuguese airline.
“The Lisbon hub is already and in the future will become a center for the production and distribution of synthetic fuels for aviation,” said Infrastructure Minister Joao Galamba, describing it as a great opportunity for TAP and a potential factor for its evaluation.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves, French version by Augustin Turbin)
By Sergio Goncalves
