Lufthansa Group and the Portuguese government have signed an agreement for the German airline group to acquire an initial 44.9% stake in TAP Air Portugal for €1.025 billion. Signed at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport on 3 November, the deal advances TAP’s privatisation but remains subject to regulatory approval, particularly from the European Commission. The stake could rise to 49.9%, with the total price reaching as much as €1.2 billion including a ticking fee.
Lufthansa plans to finance the purchase from available liquidity. The possible increase in its holding would depend on acquiring shares initially offered to TAP employees. No completion date or details of governance arrangements and voting rights were disclosed.
The group plans to expand TAP’s links from Portugal to Brazil, Portuguese-speaking Africa and North America, and to develop Lisbon as its seventh hub. Porto, the Azores, Madeira and the Algarve are also included in its growth plans. Lufthansa estimates that a minority stake could deliver most of the synergies it anticipates, which it puts at up to €450 million; these are projections, not confirmed post-transaction results.
Lufthansa estimates that its share of the Europe–Latin America market would increase from about 9% to around 20% with TAP. Its airlines currently operate 353 weekly flights to six destinations in Portugal, 75% more than in 2019. The group has more than 500 employees in the country and expects that number to exceed 1,000 by 2030, partly through development of its Lufthansa Technik site near Porto, in Santa Maria da Feira.