Portugal consults TAP suitors on plans for airline
LISBON (Reuters) - The Portuguese government is finalising consultations with airlines interested in flag carrier TAP to establish their objectives before coming up with a privatisation plan, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said.
He told broadcaster SIC late on Tuesday that the government "doesn't want to carry out a privatisation without knowing what the market players also have as their objectives", to ensure the privatisation plan aligns with market sentiment.
"There are many companies interested ... we are currently concluding consultations with all interested parties who, over time, have expressed interest in the acquisition of TAP's capital", he said.
At least three major airline operators - Lufthansa, British Airways owner IAG, and Air France-KLM - have said they are interested in state-owned TAP.
A month ago, sources told Reuters that Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr met with the government to formally signal his company's interest in the privatisation.
One of the sources said Lufthansa was eyeing a 19.9% stake in TAP, below the 20% threshold that would require approval from the European Commission.
"We are studying the best model to be successful and value the company as much as we can," Montenegro said, pointing out that Portuguese taxpayers paid 3.2 billion euros ($3.5 billion) to rescue TAP during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I always argued that ideally we could achieve a total privatisation, as long as we secure the routes that are strategic for us and the Lisbon hub... (but) I'm not saying that the model should be to go from 0% (private stake) to 100%."
($1 = 0.9123 euros)
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves, editing by Andrei Khalip and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)