Greybull Capital LLP, controlled by the secretive Meyohas brothers from their Knightsbridge offices, is reported to have gone through the figures and is finalising a bid for TAP.
The airline, owned by the Portuguese state on behalf of the taxpayer, is up for sale despite 2014 losses and a current strike by pilots which may knock as much as €40 million from its 2015 turnover.
A late entrant to the roster of potential bidders, Greybull has until May 15th to submit its proposal, as do the other companies still in the running.
Three venture capital firms already have signed the confidentiality agreement enabling them access to detailed financial information on TAP, including the American fund Apollo Global Management.
Other interested parties are Germán Efromovich, owner of South American airline Avianca, David Neeleman of airline Azul from Brazil, Miguel Pais do Amaral fronting a consortium with American businessman Frank Lorenzo.
Greybull is run by the Meyohas family and claims to make 'long term investments in private companies in the energy, technology, retail, industrial and manufacturing sectors in Europe and the United States.'
Greybull states that through investment and innovation its team aims to help 'create growing and profitable enterprises.'
The low profile investment firm bought Monarch Airlines last year to rescue 'a great British brand' but other investments made the headlines for all the wrong reasons such as the disastrous bankrolling the American, Henry Jackson's 'OpCapita' buyout of the UK electrical retailer Comet which later collapsed with the loss of 7,000 jobs.
The two brothers, Marc and Nathaniel Meyohas, came to prominence during the Comet fiasco having previously remained behind the scenes at Greybull in the highly secretive world of venture capital.
Should the brothers be successful in bidding for TAP, their names will become well known, in Portugal at least, hopefully for all the right reasons.
