TAP: Government approves privatization of 49.9% of capital

The Government approved, this Thursday, the decree-law that begins the process of reprivatizing TAP and in which it intends to sell, in a first phase, 49.9% of the airline's capital, through the direct sale model, reserving up to 5% for employees, as provided for in the privatization law.

According to Luís Montenegro, "there will be many interested parties, and we may have the opportunity to evaluate the proposals presented from a financial, technical, and strategic perspective." Nevertheless, he assured that the process safeguards the Lisbon hub and that if the government's objectives are not met, the process can be suspended without any compensation. The idea, according to the Prime Minister, is for the company to be "profitable and well-managed, well-managed and within a framework of being competitive, financially sustainable, and serving the country's strategic interests."

This is the first step towards starting the sale of TAP, which will once again have private shareholders after the Government moved towards nationalization in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic on air transport.