Portugal’s government is aiming to finalise the privatisation of TAP Air Portugal by 2024.

The country’s Minister of Finance, Fernando Medina, said there was no hurry to privatise TAP Air Portugal in a statement following the Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting of the Council of the European Union.

Medina said the privatisation would not be completed this year, as it was never “in the government’s plans,” SIC Noticias reports.

“Our perspective is, above all, to ensure a privatisation process that reinforces TAP’s strategic role in the Portuguese economy,” Medina commented, going on to say that the government is in no rush to finish the process as it isn’t seeking to “reduce the public debt, for example.”

The government’s main priority is to ensure that privatisation continues to protect Portugal’s economic interests and allows TAP Air to increase its contribution to the country’s wellbeing.

“It is a large-scale transaction by any standard, and therefore, it will take a few months,” the Minister of Finance added.

As it stands, independent assessments are being carried out on TAP Air by Ernest & Young (EY) and Portugal’s Banco Finantia, which are due to be finalised at the end of next month.

It has not as yet been decided what stake the government is willing to sell to the public. However, this will be announced following the assessments by EY and Banco Finantia, the SIC Noticias report adds. 

“Time is needed to carry out privatisation in a transparent and natural way, as determined by law, and so that we can have several proposals and reinforce the State’s negotiating role throughout the entire process, so that we have, for the country, the results we want to obtain,” Medina continued.

International Airlines Group (IAG), the parent company of British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and others, has shown interest in purchasing a stake in TAP.

“The TAP operation may make sense from a strategic point of view because of the Brazilian market, they are complementary. But we have to look at the other conditions under which it is privatised,” according to Luis Gallego, the CEO of IAG, as reported by Reuters news agency last month.