Fernando Medina describes airline’s “very good performance”
The privatisation process of flagship airline TAP will “soon” go to the Council of Ministers, Finance Minister Fernando Medina said today.
“I hope to soon be able to present to the Council of Ministers the start of the TAP privatization process,” he said in Madrid at a press conference alongside Spain’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño.
Medina said that due to the “very good performance that TAP is having (…) a performance well above expectations regarding the fulfillment of the restructuring plan” this is “a good moment for the government to evaluate and decide on the course of the company’s privatization”.
According to the minister, this is “the main conclusion” of the “exploratory work” and “indicative” of a “pre-study of the market with potential investors” that TAP has already done to “precisely gauge what they would be and what the investment prospects are” of potential stakeholders in the company.
“The Government is carrying out the preliminary and necessary work to be able to begin the process of privatizing TAP, which we will do as soon as possible, but also with the necessary attention to a process of this size and demand,” said Mr Medina, before stating the intention to soon take the dossier to the Council of Ministers.
Fernando Medina was in Madrid today to participate in a conference on the future of European economic and financial policies, organized by the Elcano Institute for International and Strategic Studies.
He and his Spanish counterpart then went into a bilateral meeting, says Lusa.
TAP has benefited from a €3.2 billion restructuring package, authorised by Brussels, albeit prime minister António Costa has acknowledged that it will be very unlikely to see this money recouped in a privatisation deal.
Possible figures given in the media have reached €900 million.
Various airlines are said to be potentially interested, including IAG which owns British Airways.
