Finance Minister Fernando Medina assured this Friday that “there is no urgency” in the privatization of TAP, in a “massive” transaction that would take several months and should not be completed this year, according to the official.
“Our perspective is mainly to ensure a privatization process that strengthens TAP’s strategic role in the Portuguese economy. […] We are not doing this privatization process because of an urgent need to reduce the national debt, for example, we are not doing it because of an urgent matter for the country’s economy,” said Fernando Medina.
Speaking to Portuguese journalists in Brussels at the end of a meeting of European Union finance ministers, the Portuguese official pointed out that TAP’s privatization process “will certainly not be completed within the year 2023”.
“This was never in the government’s plans,” he assured, pointing out that this privatization will be carried out “in the belief that this is the path that most protects the country and that TAP can grow the most in its contribution to the national economy.”.
According to Fernando Medina, this is also “a process of enormous importance and of great sensitivity, of great strategic importance for the future and therefore it will proceed within its time and its moulds”.
“It is a major transaction in every way. […] and therefore it will take several months,” he estimated, refusing to specify a time frame, namely for the launch of the tender for the submission of proposals.
What is certain is that this will only happen after approval of the legal decree regarding the process and, according to the finance minister, “as soon as possible”, after evaluations of the company.
“Time is the time it takes for the privatization to be carried out in a transparent and natural way, as stipulated by law, and so that we can make various proposals and strengthen the bargaining role of the state throughout the process, so that for the country, the results we want to achieve,” Fernando Medina told the press in Brussels.
The position comes after the official estimated last Thursday that TAP’s privatization process will take “several months”, having already begun an earlier requirement, and stressed that the focus is on the “strategic future” of the company’s flag antenna.
In addition, the government intends to move forward with the privatization process of TAP after the succession of several cases related to the management of the company that motivated the establishment of this Commission of Inquiry.
Source: DN
