António de Sousa, chairman of the monitoring committee for the ANA sell off, said yesterday that taxpayers benefitted in the short term, but in the longer term, users of Portugal's airports will be paying increased prices as a result of the sale.
ANA-Airports was sold to the French Vinci Group in 2012 with the infrastructure specialist paying a full price in the knowledge that it easily can recoup this from higher charges to businesses using the airport to trade, and from increased landing fees paid for by travellers as part of their ticket price.
António de Sousa was appearing at a parliamentary hearing of the Committee of the Economy and Public Works and said that the fact that the airport users will have higher costs throughout the concession period, scheduled for 50 years, "is a trade-off as the State obtained a higher short-term cash inflow.”
Amado da Silva said that many had been surprised by the large increase in the price offered by bidders during the second stage of the ANA sell off, "There was in fact a reduction of risk for the potential owner which corresponded to an increase in the offer prices.”
The man in charge of the working group was responding to several questions from the government opposition about the contract signed between the French group and the government.
The committee members criticised the absence of a prior and independent evaluation and drew attention to issues relating to a new Lisbon airport which the Government is contracted to build when annual traffic reached 22 million passengers a year, or it will have to pay ANA for not building a new airport.
António de Sousa, said that "our final conclusion is that the process was oriented toward maximising the financial proceeds for the State, it was conducted in a transparent manner, and the commission has not received complaints from any of the competitors."
The privatisation of ANA was completed in December 2012 with the sale of the company to the French Vinci Group for € 3,080 million.
