Ponta Delgada, Portugal, May 6, 2025 (Lusa) - Victorair, which led one of the consortia competing for the privatisation of Azores Airlines, raised "doubts about the legality" of the process on Tuesday and said that it was facing a possible "undue benefit" to the competing consortium.
The company claims that "as of today, it has not received any response to the enquiries" made to SATA Holding's management. It said it did not submit a takeover bid because it considered that "the conditions necessary to formulate a binding takeover bid were not met".
Victorair, in a statement, nevertheless maintains that it "expressed a continued interest in the business, should the tender end without a winner, or should it be relaunched".
"This decision was taken because, in our opinion, the debt issue lacked clarity and the tender specifications did not allow the submission of conditional bids," the company said.
It said, 'new details have come to light that raise legitimate doubts about the legality, transparency and fairness of the process".
The company pointed out, "in particular", the continuation of negotiations with the only consortium accepted by the jury, "after the announcement of the cancellation of the tender made by the vice-president of the Regional Government on 2 May 2024".
According to the company, although "without legal effects, this announcement created an expectation that the process would be reversed".
"Instead of instructing SATA Holding to formalise the cancellation, as would have been expected following the court decision of 27 September 2024, which declared that the competence to cancel the tender rested with the company and not the Regional Government, the government chose to keep the process in abeyance, ultimately allowing negotiations with the consortium as mentioned earlier to continue," Victorair points out.
The company said that, "just 17 months after the deadline for submitting binding bids (when negotiations were already underway with the winning consortium)", it was assumed by the president of the Regional Government, "and never denied by any member of the Government, or by SATA", that the region would "assume SATA Internacional's liabilities", estimated at around €600 million.
The company emphasises the subsequent entry of new investors into the consortium, "with the endorsement of the Regional Government, despite the provisions of paragraphs 9 and 10 of article 4 of the tender specifications, which “bind the composition of the consortium and impose joint and several liability on the original entities”.
It also points to the "lack of timely publication of the accounts for 2024 and the first quarter of 2025," which prevents an "up-to-date and transparent assessment of the company's economic and financial situation."
Victorair says it has chosen, "to date, not to go to court, not to aggravate the carrier's already fragile situation", but believes that the decisions adopted throughout the process "may constitute a possible undue benefit to the competing consortium".
At issue is the change in its composition "after the binding phase" and the "public assumption of the debt by the region, without this reality having been contemplated in the initial competitive framework."
On 1 April, the President of the Government of the Azores, José Manuel Bolieiro, defended the privatisation of Azores Airlines as having been carried out with "maximum transparency," stressing that the government had not interfered in the company's management's powers.
"I think it [the privatisation process] has been carried out with maximum transparency. Anyone who thinks it could be more transparent would be entitled to do so, but there is no opacity," said José Manuel Bolieiro.
In June 2022, the European Commission approved €453.25 million in state loans and guarantees from Portugal to support the airline's restructuring. The aid provided for measures such as reorganising the structure and divesting a controlling stake (51%).
JME/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
