The sale of TAP went through last Thursday despite calls from the Socialist Party to have the sale frozen due to Portugal’s government currently being in a state of suspended animation.
TAP staff today received an email showing who now was steering the company after Gateway successfully took over 61% of TAP’s shares from public ownership.
The board positions already have been filed and will remain in place for two years before coming up for re-election.
"After the transfer of shares representing 61% of the share capital of TAP SGPS to the Atlantic Gateway company on the 12th of November, below is the current composition of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee," read the internal document.
The Board of Directors of TAP Group will be chaired by the avuncular figure of Humberto Pedrosa who is the majority shareholder of Gateway and needs to be seen to be running the show.
One continuing disappointment is the reappointment of Fernando Pinto as Chief Executive of the Group.
Pinto had ten years to prepare TAP for sale, deal with its problems and then raise money for the state.
The facts show that Pinto failed to sort out the unions, strikes were endemic, borrowings rocketed to exceed €1 billion and when the majority of the state’s shareholding was sold last week, the treasury received just €10 million.
The Executive Committee of the newly configured TAP SA consists of David Pedrosa, son of the new Chairman, and Maximilian Urbahn as well as Neeleman and Pedrosa Senior with Fernando Pinto as Chief Executive.
The main Board of Directors of TAP SGPS SA has seven further members one of which is David Neeleman, the driving force behind the deal and an experienced airline owner-manager.
Pedrosa has appointed five members to the board against David Neeleman’s four, with the state having two board members as the Portuguese public still own 35% of the company.
The set up may go some way towards assuring the Civil Aviation Authority that Pedrosa is in charge, or at least that Neeleman is not calling all the shots.
A large order for new aircraft already has been amended to provide more fuel-efficient models and Neeleman has briefed staff that TAP is to increase flight frequencies and drop prices to take on low-cost European competitors.
TAP, SGPS, SA
Humberto Manuel dos Santos Pedrosa - President
Fernando Abs da Cruz Souza Pinto - Chief Executive Officer
David Humberto Canas Pedrosa - Member of the Executive Committee
Maximilian Otto Urbahn - Member of the Executive Committee
Gary David Neeleman - Member
Philippe Albert Calixte Delmas - Member
Sydney John Isaacs - Member
Robert AaronMilton - Member
Henri Courpron - Member
Tiago Gonçalves de Aires Mateus - Member
Francisco Maria de Freitas Morais Sarmento Ramalho - Member
TAP, S.A.
Humberto Manuel dos Santos Pedrosa - President
Gary David Neeleman - Member
Fernando Abs da Cruz Souza Pinto - Chief Executive Officer
David Humberto Canas Pedrosa - Member of the Executive Committee
Maximilian Otto Urbahn - Member of the Executive Committee
