TAP back on the block this year

Antonio Borges, the man responsible for the Portuigal's raft of privatisations, said today that we must privatise TAP because the airline needs capital and, while it is in state hands, everything has a political dimension.
Borges commented in a radio interview today that the workers understand that TAP is putting pressure on the government to solve its problems. “It is a wonderful company but it is vastly under-capitalised and there are a lot of conflicts and problems confronting the company. The main reason for privatization is, on the one hand, bringing in new capital and, secondly, releasing TAP from public sector management because it is politicised in a way that is not in the interest of the company or in the national interest.”

TAP was in the process of being privatised at the end of last year, butthe process was suspended as the only candidate, Synergy Group led by German Efromovich the owner of the Colombian airline Avianca, did not come up with bank guarantees.

There were questions asked in parliament about the relationship between a minister and Efromovich which were never resolved as conveniently the process was unilaterally abandoned by the government using the bank guarantee get out clause. Efromovich denies that he was unable to supply guarantees, he claims he had not been asked for them and was not expecting to supply such guarantees until after his bid was successful.

The Government has already announced plans to re-launch the privatisation process this year but is being very quiet as to when.

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