Insolvency hearing for ex-TAP SGPS to be held in largest room in the court

The official receivers for Siavilo – formerly TAP SGPS – has asked Lisbon’s commercial court (Tribunal Judicial da Comarca de Lisboa) to reserve the largest audition room in the court for its winding up hearing.

TAP’s liabilities were passed from TAP S.A. to TAP SGPS (known as ‘bad’ TAP) to facilitate the forthcoming sell off competition of the national airline to private airline conglomerates this year.

The effective shell company, which has no assets and only liabilities, was renamed Siavilo and holds around €1.35Bn in creditor debts.

The audience room has a been reserved for the Assembly of Appreciation for the report that declares the winding up of the company.

TAP S.A. filed a bankruptcy request for Siavilo on July 10. Its board of directors had already resigned. The insolvency was decreed by the government on August 6.

It is now known that the debts concentrated in Siavilo stands at €1.35Bn according to the insolvency document.

TAP S.A. is the largest creditor (€1.1Bn), followed by the Brazilian airline Azul and Parpública (the holding company that manages public companies) with a combined €235 million. Portugal’s tax authorities are owed a modest €926,72.

However, the number of creditors could be greater, one of the reasons why the winding up hearing – set for October – was booked for the largest audience room.

Parpública issued a €30 million loan in the form of bonds in 2016 to TAP, at the time called TAP SGPS, which with accumulated interest (set at €4.2 million) has now reached €58 million.

In April the Bond Holders Assembly expected the payment of the debt at the request of Brazilian airline Azul which was owed €90 million in 2016 but with interest has since soared to €177 million.

In the winding up document prepared for the hearing it is revealed that Siavilo, which has no assets, posted a loss of €58.7 million in 2024 with negative own capital of €1.33Bn.

Source:  Jornal de Negócios