The Government approved the final terms of the first stage of the privatisation procedure of the Portuguese postal operator, CTT - Correios de Portugal, S.A. (CTT), which will include the sale of up 70% of the share capital owned by Parpública - Participações Públicas, S.G.P.S., S.A. (Parpública) through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and a direct institutional sale.
Pursuant to Resolution 72-B/2013, of 18 November 2013, in the IPO, which started on 19 November 2013 and will end on 2 December 2013, Parpública will sell 21,000,000 shares, of which 5,250,000 shares are reserved to CTT group employees. The price of the shares placed in the IPO will be set between € 4.10 and € 5.52, with employees benefiting from a 5% discount. In the direct institutional sale, Parpública will sell 84,000,000 shares to the following banking institutions: Caixa - Banco de Investimento, S.A., J.P. Morgan Securities PLC, Banco Bilbao Viscaya Argentaria, S.A. e Banco Espírito Santo de Investimento, S.A.. The price per share may be higher (but not lower) than the price set out in the IPO.
The Prospectus of the IPO provides that CTT will distribute 90% of its net profit as dividends.
The Portuguese Government approved the conditions for the privatisation of up to 70% of CTT - Correios de Portugal, S.A. (CTT), the Portuguese postal operator.
The privatisation will consist of an IPO combined with a direct sale to banking institutions with CTT's employees benefiting from a call option regarding 5% of the shares.
A recent change to the Portuguese Communications Law (enacted by Law no. 42/2013, of 3 July 2013) establishes that network and service providers shall only have the obligation to bar access to audio-text services and to the following SMS and MMS-based value-added services ("VAS"):
(i) Services consisting of more than one message or of periodic messages; or
(ii) services with erotic or sexual content.
Users must request the network or service provider to lift the blocking of these VAS and to bar other active VAS now accessible by default. Providers must attend these requests within 24 hours, with no additional charge.
These new rules come to effect on 17 August 2013 but since 3 July 2013 providers must inform subscribers of the new rules and particularly that they must request the barring of access to any additional VAS that from now on will become accessible by default.
Portugal reinforces support to investment with new tax incentives to agricultural, forest, agroindustry and tourism projects.
A new Investment Support Tax Regime (Regime Fiscal de Apoio ao Investimento) grants CIT deductions and exemption from Municipal Real Estate Transfer Tax and Stamp Duty and a new tax incentives for research and business development (SIFIDE II) is created for the period from for 2013 to 2015.
The Portuguese Government passed Decree-Law no. 58/2013, of 8 May 2013, which set out new rules applicable to credit transactions, which will limit default interest rates to 3% plus the agreed interest rate, allow the capitalisation of interest for minimum periods of one month and prohibit late payment fees.
The new rules will apply to all credit transactions (including, among others, consumer loans, mortgage and corporate loans) entered into by banks and financial companies subject to the supervision of the Bank of Portugal and will enter into force on 5 September 2013.
The Portuguese Government has implemented Directive 2003/87/EC, of 13 October on greenhouse gas emissions permits.
According to Decree-Law no. 38/2013 of 15 March, the Portuguese Environment Agency (Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente) (APA) will be responsible for granting gratuitous greenhouse gas emissions permit, managing the Portuguese Registry of Emission Permits, which is integrated in the Union Registry and also technical management of the Portuguese Carbon Fund.
The operators of greenhouse gas emitting plants that carry out any of the activities listed in Annex II of the Decree-Law must mandatorily own a greenhouse gas emissions permit (título de emissão de gases com efeito de estufa) (TEGEE). The request for a TEGEE must be submitted with the competent authority responsible for the permitting procedure by filling in a specific form made available by APA on their internet website.
PARVALOREM, the State-owned vehicle that holds part of BPN's former loan portfolio, has issued a public tender for the rendering of servicing and collection services respecting its loan portfolio, which is divided into four independent lots.
Applications to pre-qualification must be submitted by 18 February 2013.
According to the new guidelines, the base amount of the fine is set between 0% and 30% of the turnover related to a breach of competition law, and only when it is not possible to determine that value, will the Competition Authority take into account the undertaking's total turnover.
The new leniency regulation establishes which elements must be submitted to the PCA and enables undertakings to submit an initial application through a marker system and a summary leniency application.
The Portuguese Government approved the terms and conditions applicable to the sale of the share capital of ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal, S.A. (ANA) by private negotiation by Resolution of the Council of Ministers 94-A/2012, where the tender specifications (caderno de encargos) may be found.
Investors selected during the preliminary stage may now have access to the relevant information and carry out the necessary due diligences to submit their binding offers, which are due in mid- December 2012.
The choice of the buyer will be based not only on the price offered but also on the quality of the strategic project.
The IMF has issued the fifth review of the Portuguese Economic Adjustment Program. The report concludes that good progress has been made although the program has now entered a more challenging period.