Frankfurt — Lufthansa is drawing closer to owning part of Italian airline Ita Airways after it became the sole airline to submit a bid for a stake in the successor to Alitalia, Rome confirmed on Wednesday evening.
Earlier, the German company said that it had sent an offer initally for a minority stake.
As the sole owner, the Italian state is now examining whether to enter into exclusive negotiations with Lufthansa for a final purchase agreement, which could take several weeks. Lufthansa also said it wanted an option to acquire the remaining shares at a later date. Amounts were not disclosed.
Lufthansa expects negotiations on the structure of the shareholding as well as on the operational integration into the Group.
Aside from Lufthansa, no other interested party submitted a bid for for the loss-making airline with 66 aircraft at last count, officials in Rome said after the deadline expired.
Any takeover would be subject to approval by the European Commission under competition law.
Ita was launched in October 2021 as a significantly downsized successor to Alitalia, which had to finally give up operations during the coronavirus crisis despite receiving significant sums in state aid.
Ita has been entirely loss-making since the beginning and has also had to be supported by the state. With around 4,000 employees and 66 planes, it has a market share of around 20% in its home country.
Bidding for shares in the company was due to end on Wednesday evening. It was initially unclear whether another bidder would remain in the race. Most recently, negotiations with financial investor Certares ended inconclusively, mainly because the Italian government only wants to sell Ita shares to airlines.
The Lufthansa Group has been trying for years to gain a stronger foothold in the key Italian market and considered a takeover of Alitalia several times.
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