Humberto Pedrosa, who left the TAP shareholder structure at the end of 2021 after five years of participation through the Atlantic Gateway consortium, will be heard today by the parliamentary inquiry committee.
Owner of the Barraqueiro group, the 75-year-old Portuguese businessman became a partner in the Atlantic Gateway consortium with Brazilian David Neeleman in 2015.
The consortium acquired a 61% stake in the airline, in a privatization carried out in the final stretch of the PSD/CDS-PP government led by Pedro Passos Coelho.
But the change of government, which was led by socialist António Costa, with the support of the PCP and BE, brought the businessman back to the negotiating table, reducing the consortium’s participation to 45% and reinforcing the State’s, from 39% to 50%. The remaining 5% of the capital remained in the hands of the workers.
Almost a year after having closed the deal with the Passos Coelho government, and after the reversal negotiated with the political left, Humberto Pedrosa said he has no regrets, despite the delay in the deal.
“I have no regrets whatsoever and I believe in TAP’s success. TAP will be at the top of the airlines,” said the businessman in October 2016, shortly after receiving the “Personality of the Year” award, a recognition by the Luso-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to personalities from the business world of the two countries.
At the time of signing the agreement that returned 50% of TAP to the state, in February 2016, Humberto Pedrosa said that “good will and dialogue allowed the marriage”.
“Initially I said that our project and the Government’s did not marry, but the good will of both parties and the dialogue allowed it to end in marriage, as it could only be between people of good faith,” the businessman said then.
Days before the covid-19 pandemic hit the country in March 2020, the press reported that Humberto Pedrosa was in negotiations for the sale of his position in the airline, which the businessman denied, ensuring that he was “committed to the recovery” of TAP, which was reducing losses.
With the operation stopped due to mobility restrictions to contain the spread of the virus, TAP got into difficulties and the government decided to nationalize the airline, buying David Neeleman’s stake for 55 million euros.
Humberto Pedrosa and his son David Pedrosa left the board of directors of TAP SGPS, where they were chairman and director, respectively, but remained shareholders, leaving the company, discretely, in December 2021.
