The Council of Ministers has approved the agreement that formalises the State’s position as the largest shareholder of TAP, with 50% of the capital.
The private Atlantic Gateway consortium, owned by Humberto Pedrosa and David Neeleman, owns 45% of TAP’s shares, the remained now owned or reserved for TAP employees.
This concludes 18 months of negotiations between the consortium and António Costa's best friend, Diogo Lacerda Machado, to reduce Atlantic gateway’s 61%.
"The commitment made in the State Government Programme to become the largest shareholder of TAP is thus fully fulfilled so that, together with Atlantic Gateway, it will capitalise, modernise and ensure the development of the company in the service of the Portuguese,” reads the Council of Ministers press release.
TAP was sold by the Passos Coelho government on November 12, 2015 with Atlantic Gateway pledging to inject €334 million into TAP, (€150 million immediately) in exchange for 61% of the shares. This left the State with 34% and 5% for employees.
When António Costa took office on November 23, 2015 he pledged that the State would again control TAP and work started to achieve this.
The government can appoint six of the 12 directors - including the chairman, and the Brazilian, Fernando Pinto, remains as CEO, a position he has held since 2000.
The company started as Linha Aérea Imperial in 1945 as a State-owned enterprise and was first privatised in 1953.
In the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution, in 1975 the company was nationalised until its sale to the Gateway Consortium in 2015. Now it is controlled once again by the government.
