The intended privatization of Portuguese flag carrier TAP is to resume next year, according to Portuguese Minister of the Economy António Pires de Lima in an interview with local media.
The currently state-owned airline has received “more than three” Expressions of Interest, and de Lima warned that the privatization process “would not likely be completed this year as previously hoped.”
de Lima said: "We have seen in the last month, not one, not two, not three, but more than three Expressions Of Interest (EOI) in either the total or partial privatization [of TAP]. What Government should do is use the opportunity to move forward in this process.”
Among the EOIs was a non-binding proposal submitted by Miguel Pais do Amaral in partnership with former Eastern Air Lines chairman and famed “union buster” Frank Lorenzo.
The Portuguese government’s first attempt at privatizing TAP in late 2012 was abandoned after sole bidder, Brazil's Synergy Aerospace, failed to provide the requisite financial guarantees. Synergy Aerospace had bid EUR35million (USD46.5million) for TAP, and was to have invested EUR316million in the company while taking on its estimated EUR1.2billion debt.