Sérgio Silva Monteiro, Secretary of State for Transport, now has the long-awaited figures he needs on the current value of TAP, the Portuguese nation's airline, not that he is letting us know the amount.
Monteiro has the report from his ‘experts’ but still will not commit to a date to re-launch the privatisation of the airline despite the availability of willing buyers.
All that the Secretary of State will say is that the report "concluded that the company is worth more in 2013 than in 2012."
Hopefully this startling fact did not cost the taxpayer too much as with increasing profit growth and the tidying up of the Brazil maintenance depot that had been haemorrhaging money, it is plainly obvious the company is worth more now than a year ago. In fact Monteiro has used the increase in TAP’s value as one of the many excuses he has been employing to explain the government's dithering over the airline's sale ever since the aborted take off in 2012.
The business earned €34 million in profit last year, an increase of 42% on the 2012 figure and adding to five consecutive years of positive results so it would be odd if the value had dropped.
The delivery of the report was “within the deadline set by the Executive,” said Monteiro, and is one of the “key pieces so that the Executive can move forward with the process of privatisation of TAP cancelled in 2012.”
Parpública which holds the shares on behalf of the Portuguese taxpayer is being assisted in the sale process by Barclays Capital, Banco Espírito Santo de Investimento, Citi Bank and Credit Suisse. No reason is given why these banks have been appointed, why there are four of them, what they will add to the deal and what their fees are likely to be.
Sérgio Monteiro said there is no timetable for the sale process, but privatisation may be relaunched this semester.
There is more than one party interested this time around. The highly controversial American, Frank Lorenzo, who is rumoured to be in league with Portuguese front man, Pais do Amaral; Qatar Airways, and the Colombian entrepreneur, Germán Efromovich, who was the only bidder in 2012 but still came in second as the government pulled the sale.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, TAP has been banned from selling any more ticket until it gets it act together. The authorities of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco have banned the airline from selling tickets for five days and the company faces stiff fines due to "constant cancellations and flight delays on the route between Recife and Lisbon."
Airline officials said that the issue is being examined by TAP’s lawyers and that "TAP is making every effort, etc. etc.”
