The government is only waiting for the final confirmation from the Brazilian airline Azul to conclude the agreement with the American businessman David Neeleman.
Expresso knows that there was an exchange of messages to clarify one last aspect and that the government is just waiting for Azul, of which David Neeleman is a shareholder, to validate the agreement in order to proceed with the purchase of Neeleman’s 22 , 5% at TAP and being able to materialize the loan of 1.2 billion euros to save the company, severely affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
The Council of Ministers has been meeting since morning and the press conference to present the conclusions – among which this agreement on TAP – should not happen before 5 pm.
The order for the ‘forced’ nationalization of the company was ready to be approved today, but the last-minute deal prevented it from reaching that point. This agreement leads Neeleman to sell his 22.5% to the State for 55 million euros, which then takes control of the company, with 72.5%. Humberto Predosa, leader of the Barraqueiro transport group, will maintain its 22.5% and workers will maintain its 5%.
Azul agreed to waive the right to convert into shares the 90 million euro bond loan it made to TAP in 2016.
Meanwhile, SIC reported that the Council of Ministers approved a decree declaring the public interest of the State loan of 1.2 billion euros to TAP. In this way, the Government guarantees that the precautionary measure brought by the Commercial Association of Porto (ACP) will not stop State aid to the airline. This precautionary measure was justified by the fact that ACP considers that TAP’s flight resumption plan harms the Porto region and the north of Portugal.
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