Former TAP shareholder David Neeleman guarantees that the purchase process of the aircraft, which was known and approved by all, has undergone a rigorous political and technical examination, without any doubt or reservation.
Last week, the Infrastructure Minister stated in parliament that the TAP government asked for an audit because it suspected it was paying more for the planes – acquired in the management of private shareholders – than its competitors and that the government forwarded the conclusions. to the Public Prosecution Service.
This Monday, in a written response to a request from Lusa, TAP’s former private shareholder, through the Atlantic Gateway consortium, which was carrying out the renewal of the company’s fleet, he said he was “surprised” by the audit, and conclusions, made to the management of his period.
“This statement by a high representative of the Portuguese state about a foreign investor who in time prevented the bankruptcy of the country’s flagship company cannot be left without an answer,” he says.
Neeleman recalls that one of the key points of the Strategic Plan for TAP – approved by all those involved in the privatization process (including the state, he refers) – to which the consortium “proposed and fulfilled” was the renewal of the fleet, one of the “aging in Europe”, so it was “urgent” to rejuvenate it as “one of the conditions for survival and future growth” of the company.
“The acquisition of the Airbus aircraft was a complex and time-consuming negotiation, but one we successfully completed and which enabled us to carry out the necessary and urgent renewal of the fleet, which was “recognized by all those who signed the Strategic Plan analyzed for TAP and justified our consortium’s choice to acquire TAP”says David Neeleman.
The Atlântico Gateway consortium – made up of shareholders Neeleman and Portuguese businessman Humberto Pedrosa – won the privatization of TAP, carried out by the PSD/CDS-PP government, an operation that was partially reversed in 2015.
TAP’s new aircraft were purchased at market prices, as evidenced by the various independent assessments presented and confirmed by the rigorous and exhaustive political and technical scrutiny, typical and desirable when it comes to a privatization process and a shareholder reorganization process with the Portuguese state”, underlines the former shareholder.
Neeleman also reinforces this idea by guaranteeing the interest of a major airline – whose name he does not mention, but which he confirmed as Lufthansa on his departure from TAP – in the purchase of the Portuguese airline.
“There were doubts about the decision to renew the fleet, about the capacity of the management team or about the prices negotiated with Airbus and a few weeks before the pandemic, a major “player” of European aviation, a world reference above all suspicion, has made us an offer for a stake in TAP, which values the company at nearly $1 billion. This offer was obviously not formalized by the player until after a thorough due diligence process. renewal of the fleet of TAP were closed were outside the ‘standards’ [padrões] market?” he asks.
In an interview with Bloomberg on April 23, 2021, Neeleman said he was about to sell his stake in TAP — 45% owned by the consortium, of which he held 50% of the capital — for $250 million.
Still during the investigation being conducted, he adds that the full contractual structure related to the purchase of new aircraft between Airbus, Atlantic Gateway and TAP, as well as all necessary steps, “have been made known to the relevant stakeholders and decision-makers, prior to privatization and at the time of the shareholder reorganization and were, as they should be, the subject of further investigation by the Court”.
“No reservations have been made,” he confirms.
The businessman draws attention to the fact that in 2016 – when he negotiated with the new government about the reconfiguration of the shareholders – the entire privatization process and the Strategic Plan were reassessed.
“The new government at the time expressly acknowledged that the capitalization plan was being implemented and accepted the strategic plan that had been outlined and already being implemented, with the pillar, but not only, being the purchase of the new fleet,” he says. , and also notes that, even in the context of the privatization of the company, the State never ceased to be a shareholder of TAP, first with 31%, then with 50% and in recent years with all of the share capital.
For example, during the seven years of coexistence with TAP’s private shareholders, the state “has never failed – as was its legitimate right – to appoint multiple administrators”.
“To remember,” says, “In the beginning, [o Estado] appointed two directors, shortly thereafter six of the twelve were appointed, always including the chairman of the board [CA]. During all those years, at no time has any of these directors or the chairman of the Board of Directors expressed any such doubt about the Strategic Plan, the aforementioned contracts, or any management action by the directors appointed by Atlantic Gateway.”
A different attitude would also be “otherwise surprising” for David Neeleman, since from the implementation of the Strategic Plan until the pandemic “the State was not called to put even a euro on the airline and it was even possible to so that it would no longer be guaranteed by the Portuguese State”.
Miguel Frasquilho was the chairman of the board of directors of TAP, appointed by the state from June 2017 to June 2021.
Neeleman also says that, “despite living in the United States and no longer following the day-to-day business of the company,” he “really loves TAP,” and “always makes himself available to provide clarification to all rights holders, when this is deemed necessary.” to clear any doubts”, therefore regrets that the current TAP administration has conducted an audit of its time management, without addressing “any question or request for clarification” to its team, questions that they would sometimes have “answered” gladly “.
“Stop using me and TAP as a throwing weapon and recover taxpayers’ money”
Neeleman also launched the “challenge” to the government to stop using it and the carrier as a “political weapon” and focus on getting taxpayers back the investment in the company.
The Atlântico Gateway consortium – made up of shareholders Neeleman and Portuguese businessman Humberto Pedrosa – won the privatization of TAP, carried out by the PSD/CDS-PP government, an operation that was partially reversed in 2015 with the PS government.
“The entire privatization process and subsequent shareholder reconfiguration was scrutinized extensively by two Portuguese governments, including Parpública, the Court of Auditors, the Competition Authority, the National Civil Aviation Authority,” underlines the airline operator.
During the parliamentary hearing, Minister Pedro Nuno Santos specifically mentioned the government-executed privatization of the PSD/CDS-PP in which TAP was sold for EUR 10 million to “a shareholder who made the company even more indebted,” said.
In response to PSD deputy Paulo Rios de Oliveira, who reported an injection of 270 million euros by the company’s former private shareholder, the Minister of Infrastructure said the injection amounted to 224 million and that the PSD has not yet explained whether “there was in fact a capitalization, or if there was an even greater indebtedness”.
In particular, Paulo Rios de Oliveira accused the government of failing to tell taxpayers that the EUR 3,200 million injected into TAP was “non-refundable”.
Now Neeleman argues that when the Atlantic Gateway consortium, owned 50-50 by American businessman and Portuguese Humberto Pedrosa, won the privatization of TAP in late 2015, “the company was completely undercapitalized and at risk of being unable to to pay salaries”.
He therefore disputes the statements of Pedro Nuno Santos: “Contrary to what the minister says, it is not true that the Portuguese state had not financed TAP until then, since all the debts of the company until its privatization were 100% borne by the state. were guaranteed and only in this way could TAP obtain bank financing”.
Regarding the debt, he explains that when the private consortium joined TAP, the debt was “about 11x EBITDAR”, stressing that, during the company’s five years in business, “TAP did not need a euro from the Portuguese state and its debt financing security is no longer guaranteed by the state, which has fallen to less than half of what it represented in the pre-privatization period, at 5x its EBITDAR”.
“Our Strategic Plan for TAP was very clear, transparent and was presented, explained and approved by all those involved in the privatization process – including the state – both in the phase of negotiation and preparation for privatization, and during the shareholder reorganization cable carried out by the new government of that time. All the objectives of the Strategic Plan were fulfilled until a global pandemic immobilized the world aviation sector,” says the businessman.
But previously, he says, TAP had “solid liquidity of around €500 million (well above pre-privatisation levels)”, with the number of employees increasing by 18% and the number of passengers growing by 54% per year. grew 39%, the number of flights increased by 21% and added 13 new destinations – “six in the ‘super competitive’ US market,” says Neeleman.
Neeleman says he regrets since leaving TAP that “many good employees have left the company”, that the “coordination with the workers has disappeared” and that by the end of this year the state will have “injected almost four billion euros.” ” in the company.
“In my various projects in the aviation industry, I have always fulfilled my obligations and always acted honestly and transparently. I was very sorry that the current government had chosen the solution of ‘imposing’ my departure under threat of the nationalization of TAP it is true that it was the only solution and that it was up to the ‘private’ to take advantage of the company, as one can easily conclude by looking at the European aviation counterparts, in fact this was not the case with any airline in the world. No company was prepared to withstand the pandemic,” he added.
Neeleman adds that the private shareholders of airlines “have been supported in the context of the pandemic and have not been intervened by the respective states. Their management has always remained private,” contrary to what happened with TAP.
David Neeleman believes that “TAP is a great company that should be private like all European and world flag airlines”, an operation that “deserves the workers, earns their customers, deserves the Portuguese communities, Portugal deserves”.
Source: DN
