The Portuguese Government approved the new tender specifications for the privatisation of TAP, the Portuguese flagship airline company, by means of direct sale. Although the tender comprises only 61% of TAP shares, the Portuguese State will hold a put option for two years regarding the remaining stake.
Following a failed attempt to privatise the Portuguese flagship airline company, TAP - Transportes Aéreos Portugueses, S.A. (TAP SA), in 2014, the Government relaunched the privatisation by Decree-Law no. 181-A/2014, of 24 of December 2014, which approved a new privation procedure, including:
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A direct sale of up to 61% of the share capital of the holding company, TAP SGPS, S.A. (TAP); and
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An offer of up to 5% of the TAP shares to TAP employees.
Under the new privatisation procedure the Portuguese State will hold a put option in respect of the remaining shares held by it for a period of two years after the privatisation.
Following the agreement reached with the TAP trade unions, which prevented strikes in the Christmas season, the Government has approved the new tender specifications for the privatisation of TAP and the conditions of the offer of the shares to TAP employees under Council of Ministers Resolution no. 4-A/2015, of 20 January 2015.
According to the new privatisation tender specifications, the privatisation will be opened to national and international investors, which may bid individually or in consortia. The selection of the winning bid will include, among other criteria, the following:
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Improvement of TAP's economic and financial structure;
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Share purchase price;
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Capacity to assure TAP's public services obligations; and
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Technical and management expertise in the air transportation sector.
The binding offer must include a financial binding offer, a technical binding offer and documentation and legal and economic information regarding the bidder.
The financial binding offer must include:
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Bid stating the number of shares the bidder undertakes to buy and the proposed price;
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Proposed capitalisation plan for TAP and TAP SA; and
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Strategy to ensure compliance with TAP SA's legal framework and its status as EU airline operator.
The shares will be subject to a lock-up period of five years. After that period the Portuguese State will have a right of first refusal in any resale of TAP shares acquired by the winning bidder. In general, the new privatisation conditions are more favourable to potential investors and the procedure is expected to be more flexible, which could attract more bidders.
The Portuguese Government has put in place a Fund for the Systemic Sustainability of the Energy Sector aiming at reducing the Portuguese tariff deficit. This deficit is the result of a long term policy of power utilities support through complex compensation schemes (including but not limited to those known as CMEC) payable by consumers.
Energy utilities will now be called to contribute with an extraordinary contribution (a new tax already foreseen in the 2014 Budget Law) that will be used to partially replace the CMEC and to acquire tariff credits from energy companies.
The Portuguese Government approved the specifications of the public tender for the reprivatisation of Empresa Geral de Fomento, S.A. (EGF), the waste management unit of the State-owned water and waste group Águas de Portugal.
The tender specifications set out the sale of 95% of the share capital of EGF (the remaining 5% are reserved to EGF's employees) and allow the submission of tenders by national and foreign investors, individually or in consortia, that fulfil certain technical, management, suitability and financial requirements.
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The Lisbon Court of Appeal confirmed the decisions of the Portuguese Competition Authority and the Commercial Court and condemned the Bar Association of Chartered Accountants (Ordem dos Técnicos Oficiais de Contas - "OTOC") to pay fine in the amount of 90,000 euros for anticompetitive practices on the market of compulsory training for Chartered Accountants.
The OTOC was condemned for adopting a training credits regulation that almost exclusively reserved to the OTOC the training of its members. The Lisbon Court of Appeal considered that this regulation was a decision of an association of undertakings prohibited by national and European competition laws, as it eliminates competition on the market to the detriment of third training providers.
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.