By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON (Reuters) – Portugal’s centre-right minority government wants to reach an agreement on a partial privatisation of national airline TAP with the main opposition Socialists, aiming to sell a minority stake of up to 49%, Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz said on Wednesday.
Although the government has always sought to sell 100% of Portugal’s flag carrier, it does not have a majority of seats in parliament and cannot risk launching a process that could be undone by the opposition, he said.
Air France-KLM, Lufthansa and British Airways owner IAG are among those to have expressed interest in TAP, but the Socialist Party (PS) wants the state to keep a controlling stake.
“The government must be available to find solutions, negotiate … because it is better to move forward than to leave everything as it is,” Pinto Luz told a parliamentary committee.
PS, parties to its left and even the far-right Chega have said they could block the sale of a controlling stake.
A deal with PS would allow the government, which has said it wants to approve the sale process in the coming weeks, to get the backing of parliament.
Pinto Luz said the idea was to preclude management interventions by the state, adding that the government was taking a “humble approach” and seeking to make the process as transparent and dialogue-based as possible.
The sale of a minority stake would still be of interest to some of TAP’s suitors.
Reuters reported in September that Lufthansa was eyeing a 19.9% stake in TAP, below the 20% threshold that would require European Commission approval, while Air France-KLM is open to various options, including purchasing a minority stake.
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
