Link Securities | The airline holding company IAG (IAG) is not giving up on its efforts to acquire the Portuguese airline TAP despite the paralysis of the privatisation process that has led to the fall of Luis Montenegro’s government, according to the newspaper elEconomista.
The Portuguese state, which owns 100% of the company’s capital, intends to sell part or all of the airline in a public tender whose details were to be announced this month, and in which the three major European airline groups have already expressed an interest: the parent company of Iberia and British Airways, the Franco-Dutch Air France-KLM (AF-FR) and the German Lufthansa (LHA-DE), as well as other international players and investment funds, up to a dozen applicants.
On this occasion, the bet is on Lisbon airport, TAP’s hub, maintaining its status and, at the same time, gaining importance within the scheme of routes between Europe and America, where it competes with Madrid, which still has considerable capacity for growth and has been on the rise for years; but also with other major aerodromes such as London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam-Schiphol and Frankfurt. IAG will seduce Portugal with a Lisbon-Madrid dual hub to buy TAP.
