Former TAP SGPS must pay 177 million euros to Brazilian airline Azul by June 23rd

The former TAP SGPS, now known as SIAVILO, has until June 23rd to pay off all the debt resulting from the loan it contracted in 2016 from the Brazilian airline Azul and the state-owned company Parpública, an amount that currently exceeds 235 million euros, including interests.

Jornal de Negócios reports this Wednesday that Banco Montepio issued the payment note on May 27th, after the extraordinary meeting of bondholders approved a resolution recognising the default of TAP SGPS. The meeting was held on April 15th, as reported by ECO.

Of the more than 235 million euros in debt, 175,272,269.73 euros correspond to the loan and compound interests claimed by Azul — founded by David Neeleman, who was Azul’s shareholder and CEO and was TAP’s largest shareholder, through the Atlantic Gateway consortium — to which is added more than 1.6 million euros in simple interests, totalling almost 177 million euros. TAP SGPS owes Parpública 57.8 million euros, plus 541,000 euros in interests, according to Jornal de Negócios.

The 90 million euros originally lent by Azul, plus 30 million euros from Parpública, are still at the centre of the lawsuit recently filed by TAP at the Lisbon District Court, in which the Portuguese airline wants the bond loan issued in 2016 to be considered a loan, i.e. a loan from a partner that doesn’t require any guarantees.

According to the Público newspaper, Azul claims that TAP’s legal action has “a single purpose: to illicitly enrich itself by sacrificing the private property rights of Azul and ALAB”, which is part of the same group. “We are facing a real scam aimed at deceiving and harming the defendants, of which this lawsuit and the court are mere means and instruments to achieve that end”, the Brazilian company defended in court.