In a statement, TAP Air Portugal said that “the proposal was awarded to the Swiss group Gate Gourmet, after following the legal procedures, and formalised this Monday, 13 April.”
TAP SA launched a public tender on 30 December 2025, for the sale of the indivisible lot of 357,000 Cateringpor shares, each with a nominal value of five euros, representing 51% of the company’s share capital, at a base price of €9.57 million.
The public tender also defined the contractual conditions for Cateringpor’s provision of catering services after the completion of the sale.
The sale of Cateringpor’s stake was one of the commitments foreseen in TAP’s restructuring plan approved by the European Commission in 2021.
Therefore, the company’s holdings in the catering sector, as well as in handling (SPdH, formerly Groundforce) and real estate assets known as the “TAP stronghold,” were excluded from the ongoing privatisation process.
In late February, TAP’s CEO stated that receiving only one offer to buy Cateringpor was “what they expected,” emphasising that the partner shareholder had the right of first refusal.
“We would be very surprised if there were more than one offer, because the one that came is from our partner shareholder, who has the right of first refusal over all others,” said LuÃs Rodrigues at the time, in statements to journalists on the sidelines of the presentation of the strategic plan for 2026 at the Better Tourism Lisbon Travel Market (BTL).
“Therefore, what we expected happened, and it’s a perfectly natural process,” he reinforced.