Brussels not informed of Efacec sale

The Portuguese government has yet to inform Brussels that it has sold the electrical infrastructure and transport systems company Efacec to Portuguese Muti-sector company DST.

According to the news site ECO, the Government had pre-notified Brussels of the sale in May and intense technical negotiations have been ongoing since.
The Government has been waiting for weeks for a reply from the European competition authority DGComp to complete the sale, but time is running out. Efacec is said to be in a very tight financial corner and the purchase and sale contract between Parpública (the umbrella holding that owns Portugal’s public companies) and DST could become invalid from 20 October.
The secretary of State for the Treasury, João Nuno Mendes told ECO at the start of September that it was expecting a reply from Brussels in the coming weeks, but a month late it has received no news.
The European Commission when quizzed about the sale told the news source that it had “no specific comment to make” and said, “in general it is down to Member States decide if a specific measure involve State (financial) support”.
“If the measure involves help from the State, then in accordance with community law the Commission must be notified so that it can investigate the case if it is not on its list of exceptions”.
And here in lies the rub. The President of DST has already made clear that: “Under no circumstances will it be party to a transaction that involves (financial) support from the State” and is demanding a legal statement in which this issue is made absolutely clear.
DST is an engineering and construction group that is involved in civil construction, infrastructure, and water, environment and energy areas.