The ITA Airways soap opera born on the ashes of Alitalia continues and is well defeated for Air France-KLM, Delta and the US investment fund Certares.
Daily Corriere della Sera This confirms the change of direction of the new transalpine government that is studying the option of selling the majority of ITA to a consortium made up of the German company Lufthansa and the Italian public railway group, Ferrovie dello Stato (FS).
According to the plan under study, Lufthansa could acquire 51% of ITA Airways for an amount of 250 million euros and FS would keep 29%, leaving the transalpine state with 20%, details the newspaper citing government sources.
29% for Italian trains
Let us remember that the previous government of Mario Draghi had selected at the end of August the competing offer of the US investment fund Certares, associated with Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines, with a view to opening exclusive negotiations.
Then the new Economy Minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, announced at the end of October his decision not to renew the exclusivity for negotiations with Certares, paving the way for the return of Lufthansa and MSC.
The German carrier, whose offer with MSC had been initially scrapped, has also gained access to ITA Airways’ data room, a sort of step during the formulation of a bid. On the other hand, the Swiss ship owner MSC immediately decided to throw in the towel.
These prevarications do not help the Italian company that continues to lose money and therefore value. At the beginning of November, the Italian State gave the green light to a new injection of 400 million euros of public funds into the company.
Lufthansa in great shape
And Brussels had given the green light in September 2021 to a public aid of 1,350 million euros, as long as it ends up flying by itself in the long term.
A favorite time, the model proposed by Certares was no longer unanimous with Air France which would not invest directly in the capital of ITA, contenting itself with being a business partner. Insufficient weight for opponents of this proposal.
Air France-KLM has its hands tied by the conditions requested by the European Commission in exchange for public aid received to overcome the Covid-19 crisis, which prevent it from acquiring a stake of more than 10% in a company in the sector.
For his part, he lufthansa repaid all public aid received, recorded good financial health (net profit in the 2nd quarter, the first in two years) and announced its intention to hire 20,000 employees in Europe, in a context of strong recovery in air traffic and labor shortage in the sector
Source: BFM TV
