Former Stellantis CEO to present proposal to government in coming weeks
Portuguese-French businessman Carlos Tavares – until very recently CEO of Stellantis (and a former COO of Renault) – is pitching to run TAP for the state, and ensure the nation’s flagship airline does not fall into foreign hands.
According to LusoJornal, during a seminar at the Lusíada University in Porto, businessman Paulo Pereira – owner of Agribéria and companies linked to hotels and large-scale distribution in France – revealed that Tavares has agreed to stand as ‘a candidate for the leadership of TAP’.
“TAP cannot be sold to foreigners”, he told reporters at the time. “I have spoken to Carlos Tavares and convinced him to take on the challenge of running TAP. I leave you with this scoop”.
According to LusoJornal, the idea developed a few months ago during a dinner Paulo Pereira’s quinta. At the time, while discussing TAP’s difficult situation, Carlos Tavares commented: “What a shame to see the company sold to foreigners”.
Pereira then floated the idea that Tavares would be the ideal person to lead the company – and, according to the story, some time after this dinner, Carlos Tavares expressed “interest in the challenge”.
Since then, Paulo Pereira has been mobilising efforts, meeting with unions, airlines, administrations and politicians, while Carlos Tavares had been planning his Stellantis’ exit, scheduled for 2026. However, his early resignation (on December 2) “accelerated the process”.
Paulo Pereira guarantees that Tavares is motivated to contribute to the economic development of the country where he was born. “He can already see himself in Santarém, on a tractor, or in the vineyards of the North. He doesn’t need TAP to live, but he wants to make a difference,”, the business told Luso Jornal.
With Tavares at the helm, “TAP will not only be able to recover its profitability, but it will also be able to repay the investments made by the state and return the money to the Portuguese taxpayer,” enthuses Pereira, adding that “putting TAP back on top is a patriotic goal shared by all Portuguese people”.
Again, according to LusoJornal, Pereira and Tavares have been in contact with the Prime Minister’s Office and are expected to present their proposal for the management of TAP to Luís Montenegro in the coming weeks.
Tavares is a high achieving manager with a solid reputation in the automotive sector.
Before joining Stellantis – formed by the merger of the PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which owns Peugeot, Citroen, Chrysler, Opel, Jeep and Fiat, among other brands – he was chief operating officer of Renault, and director of the board of directors and chief executive officer of the PSA group, which in 2021 merged with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to form Stellantis.
He has also been a member of the Airbus Board of Directors since 2016.
TAP meantime has been being ‘prepared for sale’ for years – having cost the Portuguese taxpayers upwards of €3.2 billion simply to ‘bail it out’ during rough times, and keep it going
Former PM António Costa prepared the country for TAP’s sale at a significant loss in 2022, saying no sale could recoup the funds ploughed into it. In 2023, when talk of a sale was current again, reports suggested the value of the airline was lucky to be a third of the value of the billions spent bailing it out, and renationalising it in 2016.
Critics have long contended that the state’s plan to re-privatise TAP is ‘an economic crime’ – and as no sale will recoup the money governments have injected into the airline, an alternative that might keep it ‘Portuguese’, but running profitably could interest the government.
According to Paulo Pereira: “speculative investment by certain foreign investors doesn’t bring any added value to the country.
“It seems that more than ten companies, including giants such as Lufthansa and Air France, are interested in acquiring TAP (…) Portugal has one of the best geographies in the world. They are well aware that the company is good, but that public management is not adapted to the company (,…) Well, if the management isn’t good, we have the management champion of the world!
“We need a new era in public management. In Portugal, public management works badly. There are no leaders, there are no bosses, there are only political orientations, which change depending on whether the government is right-wing or left-wing”, he added.
Source. Luso Jornal
