The bids for a majority stake in Azores Airlines were revealed this Monday in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel Island. It is a further step in the privatization of the international arm of Grupo SATA, the aviation holding owned by the Regional Government of the Azores.
According to Expresso, a Portuguese newspaper, two consortia made bids for a controlling share in the Azorian airline. The first is Atlantic Consortium, composed by travel industry businesses Vesuvius Wings, Old North Ventures, Consolidador and airlines EuroAtlantic and White Airways. The second is NewTour/MS Aviation, the former a Portuguese travel company and the latter a business aviation operator.
Because the two bids offered the same price per share (EUR6.50), albeit with different quantities of shares asked, SATA Holdings informed that higher offers will be considered within five working days, according to Jornal de Negócios, a Portuguese business newspaper.
The Expresso reported — with information from Lusa news agency — that the Atlantic Consortium made an offer for 750,000 shares for a total price of EUR4.875 million. Meanwhile, the NewTour/MS Aviation group offered EUR4.940 million for 760,000 shares. According to the public tender launched in March, SATA Internacional (Azores Airlines)’s ownership structure is composed of a million shares, currently all held by SATA Holding.
«This is a transparent process, with the correct formalism», stated to the media Tiago Raiano, the representative of NewTour/MS Aviation, according to Expresso. «The fact that there are two proposals is relevant for SATA, with two consortia linked to the Azores. It’s important to the Azores». The representative of Atlantic Consortium, Luís Nunes, opted not to speak to the media.
SATA Internacional, which operates SATA’s mainline fleet under the brand Azores Airlines, has been chronically loss-making, albeit it remains an important lifeline between the Azores Archipelago and the European mainland. The airline also operates a number of Transatlantic routes.
The airline posted a loss of around EUR34.2 million in 2022 from a revenue of EUR208.6 million, an improvement to the pre-pandemic loss of 2019, when it registered a negative result of EUR41.4 million. Its assets in December 2022 amounted to EUR192.2 million, while liabilities were at EUR563.6 million.
Amongst the criteria for choosing the winner of the public tender are that the new controlling shareholders develop the «Azores hub» as «a platform of crucial importance in the connections of the Azores to the rest of the national territory, Europe and the Azorian diaspora, particularly that living in the [USA] and Canada».
Besides other labor, technical and legal obligations, the tender also requires the new controller to maintain four domestic trunk routes between the Azores (Lajes and Ponta Delgada) and the Portuguese mainland (Lisboa and Porto).
