LISBON: The Portuguese government on Thursday picked bids by two Brazil-based aviation tycoons for the next phase of privatisation of the indebted flag carrier TAP, discarding the only offer by a local competitor.
Transport Secretary Sergio Monteiro said the government will directly negotiate with two consortia – Gateway, comprised by a holding company of American-Brazilian investor David Neeleman and Portuguese bus company owner Humberto Pedrosa, and SAGEF, led by Brazilian-Colombian investor German Efromovich.
Efromovich, who controls Latin America’s Avianca via his holding Synergy, had made the only bid for TAP in the previous failed attempt to sell it in 2012. His offer was at the time rejected because of a problem with financial guarantees. A third bidder, a holding company of Portuguese investor and aristocrat Miguel Pais de Amaral, has been excluded from the process because the bid he had presented was not considered binding, Monteiro told a news briefing.
