The president of the Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP) is not sure that it will be possible to find a buyer for TAP who would invest in a minority position in the company, which would not ensure the management of the carrier’s destiny.
In an interview with Negócios and Antena 1, Francisco Calheiros states that “It is very difficult for TAP to remain proudly alone. It has to be part of a platform of airlines. The Spanish flag carrier is there, the French one is there, the English one is there, the German one is there, they are all there”, he states.
The representative of the tourism sector in the Social Concertation challenges the country to imagine itself in the shoes of a potential buyer. “One of the interesting issues when I am buying an airline is that I have to capture all possible synergies. Now, if I have a reference shareholder with a sufficiently large share, it is very difficult to maintain this autonomy”, he warns, giving an example: “There may be groups that, when buying TAP, may not maintain the brand. Now, if there is a major shareholder, such as the Portuguese State, this is no longer possible”.
“I don’t know if it’s possible to find a buyer who wants to develop TAP and who wants to capture synergies, and who can do this with a major shareholder, such as the Portuguese State”, warns the president of CTP.
Lufthansa’s CEO was recently in Lisbon, where he met with the government to express the German company’s interest in the Portuguese carrier. Could a company the size of the German carrier be willing to invest without having to take control? “That’s the issue,” Calheiros replies. “I’ve never spoken to them, I don’t understand what this is. A first step? I don’t know,” he admits.
Lufthansa’s proposal, worth around 200 million euros for a 19.9% stake in TAP, values the national airline at around one billion. “I have no idea if it’s a lot or a little”, says the CTP leader, who insists on another idea: “We’re not going to be talking permanently about the 3.2 billion we put in there. That was to cover losses. The company’s valuation has nothing to do with the money that was put in there, it has to do with its real value”.
Pinto Luz “has very clear ideas” and “there is no problem” in him leading the privatization
Francisco Calheiros also defends the Minister of Infrastructure remaining in charge of the privatization of TAP.
The opposition has called for Miguel Pinto Luz to be removed from the case, given that the government official was involved in the 2015 sale that raised doubts among the auditors of the General Inspectorate of Finance, but the representative of the tourism sector downplays this fact. “What happened at the time was that he simply signed a contract,” he says, pointing out that “the big mistake was to nationalize TAP again, that should never have happened.”
“This privatization, like any privatization of a large company, will involve evaluators, law firms and, therefore, I don’t think there will be any… (difficulties). Miguel Pinto Luz is a very determined person. He has very clear ideas, I don’t think there will be any problems there”, he says.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
