Portugal’s Competition Authority has 30 days in which to decide whether or not to approve the acquisition of TAP by Gateway, the consortium set up by entrepreneurs David Neeleman and Humberto Pedrosa.
On Monday, the European Commission concluded that it did not need to get involved in the TAP deal and has handed the process back to Portugal.
"After analysing the information provided by the parties, the European Commission concluded that it has no jurisdiction to assess the business under European rules for mergers," according to the Community executive spokesman for Competition, Ricardo Cardoso.
The decision returns to the Portuguese Competition Authority which now has the statutory 30 days within which to announce its verdict.
If the Authority has questions about the process that need clarification from the companies involved, the decision deadline could shift from October 1st, to beyond the general election date of October 4th. This would be highly convenient for the ruling coalition.
The Competition Authority has asked David Neeleman and Humberto Pedrosa from Gateway for "any comments from interested parties on the purchase in question" and gateway has ten days within which to respond.
On 24 June, 2015 the sale of the state’s 61% stake in TAP to the Gateway Consortium was signed off by the government accompanied by much back slapping and sighs of relief.
The Government decided in June that the Gateway bid was the strongest in terms of its contribution to the strengthening of economic and financial capacity of the TAP Group, the strategic view displayed by the company and the overall amount of cash for the acquisition of shares.
Gateway proposes to pay a minimum of €354 million for the TAP Group, of which just €10 million goes to the Treasury, the remainder will be injected into TAP which will benefit from professional management rather than being a government owned entity with proven inabilities in the field of labour relations.
