This second meeting was described as ‘very positive’ which is an improvement on the statement after the first meeting in which the new Socialist government made it clear to Atlantic Gateway’s directors that it fully intends once again to control the former State airline.
The agenda is the same and it is up to the parties to work out a way of enabling PM António Costa to complete one of his pre-election promises while not leaving Gateway out of pocket.
"The meeting went very positively and there are conditions to continue with the negotiations," is the official line from the government team.
The first meeting in December last year ended up with the Gateway partners, David Neeleman and Humberto Pedrosa, insisting that they has bought a controlling share in TAP and that is what they intend to keep.
This is incompatible with the government’s objectives and the meeting ended with little way forward.
The new Minister in charge of the negotiations, Pedro Marques and Gateway’s owners seem now to have been able to take steps forward and have looked at the return of the majority of the capital to the State while keeping Atlantic Gateway as managers of the airline which currently is run by Fernando Pinto under whose directorship TAP slumped to such a low point that it is said there was only a couple of days’ money left to refuel the fleet of aircraft.
The above outline agreement needs to be mulled over by the lawyers before a third meeting takes place but if Gateway is to stay on as minority shareholder, Neeleman and Pedrosa will be hard pressed to put the energy and dedication into the project when they do not own it.
The PM António Costa unhelpfully has stated that the majority stake in TAP is to return to the state with or without the agreement of Atlantic Gateway.
"If not in agreement with Gateway, it will be without the agreement," António Costa has stated.
The PM also said, and rightly so, that Gateway knew the Socialist Party intended to renationalise TAP if it got into power, so Gateway was taking a big risk in buying TAP.
The low price paid for control of TAP reflected the probability of renationalisation but Gateway has pressed ahead and injected an initial €180 million into TAP and had planned to put in a further €120 million at the end of January 2016.
Technically, the sale of TAP is pending the approval of the civil aviation regulator, ANAC, which in an initial decision in October 2015 said it was unclear who exerted effective control over Gateway.
The regulator has not yet confirmed if the changes made to Gateway’s voting statutes meet the European criteria for the majority control to remain in European hands.
David Neeleman’s Brazilain airline Azul accumulated losses of €60 million to September 2015, according to data released on the Brazilian civil aviation regulator’s website. Whether domestic financial problems will incline Neelman to soften his position on the renationalisation of TAP remains to be seen.
