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23-May-2013 12:32 PM

TAP privatisation to be relaunched once market conditions are favourable: Transport Minister

Portugal's Secretary of State for Transport Sergio Monteiro said the privatisation of TAP Portugal would be relaunched once favourable market conditions exist (Jornal de Negocios/Dinheiro Vivo, 22-May-2013). Mr Monteiro said, "Market conditions are what will determine when we will begin the process, because what we want is to finish in a way different from what eventually happened in the previous [attempt]." Mr Monteiro estimates that 2H2013 is when the process will be relaunched, stressing however this is an estimate and it might happen before or afterward, in 2014. Mr Monteiro said the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission understood the reasons for cancelling the previous attempt to privatise the flag carrier, as privatisation of state enterprises is a condition of the state receiving bailout funds. Meanwhile, Economy Minister Alvaro Santos Pereira said it was "important" that the Government's privatisation of assets such as TAP be partly achieved through capital markets (Reuters, 22-May-2013). As previously reported by CAPA, Portugal's Council of Ministers rejected the sole bid received in the Government's previous attempt to privatise the carrier in Dec-2012 due to insufficient financial guarantees.

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