Latin American airlines compete to buy TAP

Two of the three proposals to buy 66 percent of Portuguese state airline TAP have been selected for the negotiation phase and are considered to be of “equivalent merit,” reported Portuguese daily online newspaper Observador.
The newspaper said approval had been given to proposals from the business groups of US businessman David Neeleman, who controls Brazilian airline Azul in partnership with Portuguese businessman Humberto Pedrosa, of road transport group Barraqueiro and German Efromovich owner of Brazilian and Colombian airline Avianca. The third proposal from Portuguese businessman Miguel Pais do Amaral, of Quifel Holdings, is now out of the running.
The decision was based on a report from state holding company Parpública, which was delivered to the government this week, and considered that this proposal did not meet the specifications as it was non-binding.
The Parpública report evaluated the proposals from a financial point of view and also reflects TAP’s views on their standard of technical and strategic quality.
In this report, on which the government based its decision, Parpública considered that the two proposals from entrepreneurs David Neeleman and Germán Efromovich were of “equivalent merit” from a financial and strategic point of view.
According to the specifications of the tender document that means conditions are in place to start a negotiation process with the two businessmen, who propose capital investments of between 250 million and 350 million euros in TAP and plan to renew the Portuguese airline’s fleet of 50 aircraft.  MDT/Macauhub