Status: 08/31/2022 1:40 p.m
Lufthansa’s entry into the Italian airline ITA has obviously failed. The government in Rome is now negotiating with a consortium of bidders that also includes rivals from Germany’s largest airline.
The Italian airline ITA could soon be majority owned by a US financial investor. According to the Italian Ministry of Finance, the government wants to conduct exclusive negotiations on the sale of a majority stake to the investment company Certares. The investor is already working with the two airlines Air France-KLM and Delta Airlines from the USA.
With the decision to negotiate exclusively with Certares, Lufthansa’s previously planned entry into the Italian company could finally have failed. Lufthansa had teamed up with the Swiss shipping company MSC to take over ITA, which would have bought the lion’s share.
More state influence through competitive offers?
ITA is currently still 100 percent owned by the Italian state. The airline was only launched last year as the successor company to Alitalia, which was wound up after years of losses.
The Italian Ministry of Finance announced that the offer from Certares corresponds more closely to the requirements that the government formulated in February for a takeover of Alitalia’s successor. However, following the negotiations with Certares, binding sales contracts would only be signed if the state was satisfied with the details.
Years of efforts by Lufthansa
Lufthansa takes note of the decision, said a company spokesman. “We continue to believe that our offer with MSC would have been the better solution. But apparently you go the way with more state influence and not complete privatization,” he said.
The news agency Reuters reports that the Italian government intends to retain a right of veto over ITA even after an investor has entered. Lufthansa and MSC wanted to take over an 80 percent stake in the airline for a purchase price of 850 to 900 million euros. Certaris’ offer provides for a 60 percent stake at a price of 600 million euros. That would give the government greater co-determination rights, for example on strategic issues.
Lufthansa had been interested in joining ITA for a long time. However, Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr ruled out a direct acquisition of shares in November. For Lufthansa, an indirect participation via MSC would have meant above all the possibility of receiving feeder flights to its own hubs in Frankfurt, Munich or Zurich.