TAP’s former administrator, Diogo Lacerda Machado, said Thursday he wouldn’t rule out getting involved in TAP’s privatization process if he thinks it could be beneficial to the company, for example with “alternatives to what has been profiled.” .
“I am not involved with any interested entity, I have been approached by several – and by the way, I see no conflict of interest -, I did not accept any of the approaches, […] I do not rule out participating if I think I can be useful to TAP itself,” the lawyer replied to the blockade deputy Mariana Mortágua, in the airline’s investigative committee, who was questioned about a possible involvement in TAP’s privatization process that the government intends to implement.
Lacerda Machado explained that, for example, it might be helpful to contribute with “some alternatives to what has been profiled.”
“I’m not sure it’s as good now as it was in 2020. […] I’m not so sure that what was really good in February 2020, what was about to happen, [seja agora]said the former non-executive director.
In 2020, before the pandemic, it was reported that the Lufthansa group would be interested in buying TAP.
On Tuesday, former shareholder Humberto Pedrosa confirmed that a 2020 deal was about to be struck and that if the pandemic had been delayed for another month it would likely have been finalized, but he did not confirm it was Lufthansa.
Diogo Lacerda Machado underlined that “TAP alone cannot survive much longer”. “It’s very difficult, everything is consolidated, all together, it’s a business of volume, scale, low margins,” he explained.
Asked if he had any talks about TAP with members of the government, the prime minister’s so-called ‘best friend’ said he hasn’t spoken to a member of the airline’s board since 2021, when he left the company , and with António Costa he has not spoken “since April 9, 2020”.
Lacerda Machado, who joined the airline in June 2017, left the company in April 2021 “without any compensation,” he said in parliament on Tuesday at a hearing of the Committee on Economy, Public Works, Planning and Housing under of an application submitted by the PSD.
At the time, the lawyer emphasized the “decisive assistance” he gave in 2016 in reversing privatization, “to ensure the conditions for strengthening TAP’s balance sheet, avoiding an absolutely urgent investment in an aging, unsustainable and polluting fleet became possible”, as well as the “re-establishment of long-lost competitive capability”.
Source: DN
