Andrew Doyle/MUNICH
SAirGroup has abandoned plans to take a 42% stake in Portuguese regional carrier Portugalia after the European Commission (EC) indicated it had serious concerns about the deal on competition grounds. The Swiss company is in the process of acquiring a 34% stake in flag-carrier TAP Air Portugal, subject to EC approval.
"We received strong signals from the EC that it would not be acceptable to hold stakes in both airlines," says SAirGroup. "The problems they saw were significant enough to make us refrain from doing it," adds the company.
The Portugalia stake was to be acquired from Grupo Espirito Santo, a locally-based private banking group which holds 80% of the airline. The carrier operates some 14 aircraft to 20 destinations.
Commercial agreements already in place between Qualiflyer Group carriers and Portugalia will continue, according to SAirGroup, which owns alliance leader Swissair.
The EC is understood to have objected to the dominance that Qualiflyer would have enjoyed on routes between Lisbon and Barcelona, Faro, Lyon, Nice and Oporto, and between Oporto and Barcelona, had the deal gone through.
Brussels also raised concerns that two of the three Portuguese investment companies that were partnering SAirGroup to acquire Portugalia are state-owned. TAP will, at least initially, remain majority state-owned even after around a third of the shares in the airline are sold to SAirGroup.
Source: Flight International
