Lisbon, Sept. 4, 2024 (Lusa) - Businessman Humberto Pedrosa said on Tuesday it was "false and frivolous" to claim that TAP was bought with his own money and guaranteed that he made a loss after injecting money into the company.
"It's false, because it doesn't correspond to the truth, and frivolous to say that TAP was acquired, as part of the privatisation, with the company's own funds," said Humberto Pedrosa, in statements sent to Lusa, reacting to the conclusions of the General Inspection of Finance (IGF) report on TAP.
Pedrosa was one of TAP's private shareholders - Atlantic Gateway - in a consortium with David Neeleman but left the company's shareholder structure at the end of 2021.
The businessman said that when he joined Atlantic Gateway as a shareholder, David Neeleman had already negotiated the agreement with Airbus.
Pedrosa said he had analysed TAP's capitalisation model with his legal team, which allowed the company to meet its financial obligations and continue operating.
"This process was conducted with total transparency, and no question was raised about the legality of the model," he emphasised.
The IGF's report on TAP states that Atlantic Gateway, a consortium of David Neeleman and Humberto Pedrosa, acquired 61% of the capital of TAP, SGPS, "committing itself to proceed with its capitalisation through supplementary capital contributions, of which $226.75 million was made through the partner DGN Corporation (DGN) with funds obtained from Airbus".
It added that that capitalisation amount "coincides with the amount of the penalty ($226.75 million) assumed by TAP, SA, in the event of non-compliance with the agreements for the acquisition of the 53 aircraft (A320 and A330)", which shows a possible causal relationship between the acquisition of the shares and the capitalisation of TAP, SGPS and the contracts signed between TAP, SA and Airbus.
The IGF suggests sending the report to the Public Prosecutor's Office, especially in view of the conclusions related to TAP's privatisation process and its relationship with the contracts for the purchase of 53 aircraft from Airbus in 2015, as well as the remuneration of the Board of Directors members.
According to the report, this procedure "appears to be irregular in terms of the payment/receipt of remuneration to the members of the Board of Directors, who thus avoided their responsibilities in terms of personal income tax and social security contributions".
Humberto Pedrosa defended today that Atlantic Gateway acquired its stake in TAP for €10 million with the shareholders' own funds and that the money from Airbus was used to capitalise the company.
As for the receipt of €4.2 million over five years under a service contract, the businessman said this was not an additional burden for TAP.
"It's important to share that, during our participation in TAP's capital, we injected €12 million in ancillary instalments to fulfil various commitments, which ended up remaining with TAP, to my detriment," he said.
PE/ADB // ADB.
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