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The consortium that was in the race to privatize Azores Airlines says it will “use all legal mechanisms within its reach” to contest the cancellation of the tender
Newtour/MS Aviation, in a statement, condemned the Regional Government’s decision to cancel the privatization of SATA Internacional and even said that it will go to court to contest the cancellation of the privatization of Azores Airlines.
The group of competitors made up of MS Aviation GmbH and Newtour Azores, which presented a proposal to acquire the share capital of SATA Internacional and which was leading the race to privatize 51% to 85% of Azores Airlines, contests the cancellation announced this Thursday by the Regional Government.
“Newtour/MS Aviation will analyze the grounds that may be presented by the Regional Government of the Azores and resort to all legal mechanisms within its reach”, says the consortium.
The consortium “will do everything to defend, on the one hand, the future of SATA Internacional – Azores Airlines and its workers and, on the other, the position of the members of the Consortium whose credibility and reputation were called into question during the competition”.
The Government of the Azores canceled the privatization tender for the airline Azores Airlines and will launch a new one, claiming that the company was valued at six million euros at the beginning of the process and is now worth 20 million.
“[O Conselho de Governo] decided not to proceed with the privatization process of Azores Airlines due to the significant change in the economic and financial conditions taken into account in the company’s initial assessment. The current privatization process of Azores Airlines is thus cancelled”, announced today the vice-president of the Regional Government of the Azores (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM), Artur Lima.
The Newtour/MS Aviation Consortium says that “today it became aware, through the media, of the decision taken by the Regional Government of the Azores not to proceed with the privatization process of Azores Airlines due to an alleged significant change in the economic and financial conditions taken into account. account in the initial assessment of the airline.”
In the statement, they also say that, “throughout the process, the consortium was always committed to the success of the operation” and that “it remained silent for the sake of independence, transparency and, above all, in institutional respect for all those involved, especially by SATA Internacional and its workers”.
But now, given the decision of the Regional Government of the Azores, “silence no longer makes sense”.
“Therefore, it is necessary, for now, to take the position that Newtour/MS Aviation does not agree with the decision of the Regional Government of the Azores not to continue with the privatization process of Azores Airlines”.
Newtour/MS Aviation says that it “is formally unaware of the reasons behind this decision” and considers that the reason presented “is unfounded, namely because the negotiation phase provided for in the competition rules could accommodate a possible change in economic conditions and financial factors taken into account in the initial assessment of the airline”.
“Newtour/MS Aviation finds it strange that it was denied access to several Tender documents, namely the Final Report prepared by the Jury, as it requested it several times and through its own channels. The consortium only knows what was published in the media”, reveals the candidate for the purchase of Azores Airlines.
It should be remembered that the international public tender for the privatization of between 51% and 85% of Azores Airlines, which was cancelled, was at a stage in which there was only one viable candidate, Newtour/MS Aviation.
